«iTr%  C 


V 


SUPPLIED  TO  THE    DELEGATES 

TO     THE 

New  York  State 

Constitutional  Convention 

1915 


BY    THE 


New  York  State 

Constitutional  Convention 

Commission 


CEstablished  by  Laws  of  1914,  Chapter  261,  to  collect,  compile 
and  print  information  and  data  for  the  Consti- 
tutional Convention  of  1915) 


MEMBERS  OF  COMMISSION 

MORGAN  J.  O'BRIEN,  Chairman 

2  Rector  Street,  New  York  City 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  SENATE 

ROBERT  F.  WAGNER,  1913-14 
EDWARD  SCHOENECK,  1915-16 

SPEAKER  OF  THE  ASSEMBLY 

THADDEUS  C.  SWEET,  1914-15 

SAMSON  LACHMAN 

35  Nassau  Street,  New  York  City 

JOHN  H.  FINLEY 

State  Education  Building,    Albany,   N.  Y. 


Secretary  to  the  Commission 

FREDERICK  D.  COLSON 
New  York  State  Library,  Albany,  N.  Y. 


THE  GOVERNMENT 
OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 


A  COLLECTION  OF  ADDRESSES  AND  DISCUSSIONS  PRESENTED 

AT  A  SERIES    OF    ELEVEN    LECTURE-CONFERENCES   HELD 

UNDER  THE  AUSPICES  OF  THE  ACADEMY  OF  POLITICAL 

SCIENCE    IN   THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK  WITH  THE 

CO-OPERATION  OF  THE  BUREAU  OF  MUNICIPAL 

RESEARCH,  THE  INSTITUTE  OF  ARTS  AND 

SCIENCES  OF  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY, 

AND  A  CITIZENS'  COMMITTEE, 

APRIL  7  TO  30,   1915 


DOCUMENTS  DEPARTMENT 

OCT    4  1955 

LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


THE  NEW  YORK  STATE 

CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION 

COMMISSION 

1915 


DOCUMENTS 
DEFT, 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


THE  OFFICE  OF  MAYOR 1 

John  Purroy  Mitchel 

PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND  SANITATION 17 

5.  5.  Goldwater 
DISCUSSION 

John  J.  Murphy 44 

George  O'Hanlon 47 

Homer  Folks 50 

POLICE  ADMINISTRATION 54 

Arthur  Woods 

DISCUSSION 62 

Clement  J.  Driscoll 

FIRE  ADMINISTRATION 66 

Robert  Adamson 
DISCUSSION 79 

Clement  J.  Driscoll 

CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION 

Katharine  B.  Davis 86 

John  A.  Kingsbury 98 

DISCUSSION 103 

Edward  T.  Devine 

EDUCATION ...    105 

Thomas  W.  Churchill 
.DISCUSSION 130 

Clarence  E.  Meleney 

PARKS  AND  RECREATION 

Cabot  Ward 135 

C.  Ward  Crampton 147 

DISCUSSION 

Howard  Bradstreet 151 

W.  B.  Van  Ingen 152 

(iii) 

110 


iv  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

FINANCIAL  ADMINISTRATION,  BUDGET  AND  TAX  RATE  .       .155 

William  A.  Prendergast 
DISCUSSION 

Thomas  W.  Lamont 160 

v  E.  R.  A.  Seligman 164 

THE  REGISTER  OF  NEW  YORK  COUNTY 170 

John  J.  Hopper 

HIGHWAYS,  STREET  CLEANING  AND  PUBLIC  WORKS      .       .175 

Douglas  Mathewson 
DISCUSSION 

John  T.  F ether ston 187 

Lewis  H.  Pounds     .        .        .        .  •             .        .        .    192 
Marcus  M.  Marks 193 

THE  ADMINISTRATIVE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  COURTS  .       .196 

William  McAdoo 
DISCUSSION 

William  L.  Ransom 207 

George  W.  Alger 208 

THE  CITY  CHARTER 214 

George  McAneny 
DISCUSSION 

Thomas  I.  Parkinson 227 

Richard  S.  Childs 232 

TRANSPORTATION,  PORT  AND  TERMINAL  FACILITIES      .       .  235 

John  Purroy  Mitchel 
DISCUSSION 

Richard  C.  Harrison .   250 

Edward  M.  Bassett 254 

PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  CONFERENCES  .  257 


THE  OFFICE  OF  MAYOR 

JOHN  PURROY  MITCHEL 
Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York 

TO  discuss  adequately  and  fully  the  duties  of  the  mayoralty 
and  the  functions  and  duties  of  the  board  of  estimate, 
would  be  to  cover  the  entire  scope  and  field  of  municipal 
government,  because  the  mayor  and  the  board  of  estimate,  taken 
together,  touch  the  government  of  the  city  at  every  point.  I  shall 
try  first  to  outline  for  you  the  duties  and  functions  of  the  mayor, 
and  in  general  terms  the  work  of  the  board  of  estimate,  and  then 
to  point  out — or  possibly  to  point  out  as  I  go  along — some  of  the 
major  problems'  that  present  themselves  to  the  mayor  in  the 
discharge  of  his  duties  either  as  mayor  or  as  chairman  of  the  board 
of  estimate  and  apportionment. 

The  first  thing  that  the  mayor  has  to  do  when  he  assumes  office 
is  to  appoint  the  heads  of  his  administrative  departments.  There 
are,  if  I  recollect  aright,  some  twenty-nine  departments  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  mayor,  of  which  he  appoints  the  administrative 
heads.  I  could  not  enumerate  them  all  for  you.  You  probably 
know  them — the  police  department,  the  fire  department,  the 
departments  of  water  supply,  health,  correction,  tenements,  and 
parks,  the  corporation  counsel,  the  city  chamberlain,  and  a  number 
of  others.  The  most  important  thing  to  the  success  of  any  mayor's 
administration  is  the  selection  of  competent,  qualified,  trained 
men  for  the  administration  of  these  great  departments. 

In  the  days  when  the  government  of  the  city  was  dominated 
by  political  machines  the  plan  and  theory  were  to  select  these 
heads  of  departments  for  political  service  rendered.  Their  appoint- 
ments were  recommended  to  the  mayor  by  the  leader — we  call 
him  usually  the  "boss" — of  the  reigning  political  party;  and  the 
mayor  in  a  great  many  instances — I  might  say,  as  a  rule — appointed 
to  the  administration  of  these  departments  the  men  presented 
to  him  by  the  political  party  responsible  for  his  election.  That 
was  one  theory  of  government,  and  at  times  it  worked  out  to  a 
degree,  for  often  the  men  who  have  demonstrated  particular 

(1) 


2  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

capacity  in  political  life  are  qualified  for  the  discharge  of  adminis- 
trative duties,  but  in  a  great  many  instances  it  did  not  work  out, 
and  we  had  in  office  men  who  had  made  successes  as  district 
leaders,  but  who  were  wholly  unfit  to  discharge  the  duties  of 
public  office  and  who  were  without  the  necessary  qualification  of 
common  honesty  for  the  discharge  of  those  duties. 

The  theory  of  selection  upon  which  the  fusion  of  a  year  and  a 
half  ago,  like  the  fusion  which  elected  Mayor  Low  some  years  ago 
to  office,  was  predicated,  was  that  appointments  to  the  headship 
of  these  departments  should  be  based  solely  upon  qualification, 
training  and  fitness  to  discharge  the  duties  of  the  office,  and  without 
regard  to  political  service  rendered.  That  was  the  duty  that 
first  presented  itself  to  me  on  assuming  the  office  of  mayor.  There 
had  been  a  number  of  political  parties  contributory  to  the  fusion 
movement.  Each  of  these  parties  felt  that,  subject,  of  course,  to 
the  prime  requirement  of  competency  and  efficiency,  it  ought  to 
receive  recognition  in  these  appointments.  My  point  of  view 
toward  the  selection  of  the  heads  of  departments  was  that,  first 
of  all,  I  had  to  find  men  qualified;  that  if  qualified  and  trained 
men  could  be  found  within  the  lines  of  these  political  parties 
contributory  to  the  fusion,  I  should  be  glad  to  find  them,  to  select 
them,  and  to  appoint  them.  But  if  I  could  not  find  them  within 
the  lines  of  those  parties  within  a  reasonable  length  of  time,  or  if 
I  could  find  better  qualified  men  outside  the  organizations  of  these 
parties,  I  felt  that  it  was  my  duty  to  select  those  men. 

On  that  basis  the  heads  of  the  present  city  departments  were 
selected  and  appointed.  Some  few  of  them  are  what  might  be 
called  organization  party  men ;  but  they  were  selected  not  for  that 
reason,  but  because  in  the  field  either  of  public  administration  or 
private  business  they  had  demonstrated  their  capacity  and  proved 
their  competency.  A  great  many  of  the  others  are  not  what  could 
be  called  organization  party  men.  Conspicuously  I  think  I  might 
point  to  the  commissioner  of  the  department  of  correction,  who 
neither  is  a  man,  nor  is  she  actively  allied  with  any  particular  party 
organization,  so  far  as  I  know.  And  yet  Miss  Davis,  the  first 
woman  commissioner  appointed  in  the  city  of  New  York,  has 
conspicuously  made  good,  and  demonstrated  that  as  an  administra- 
tor and  a  maker  of  departmental  policy  she  is  quite  the  equal  of 


THE  OFFICE  OF  MAYOR  3 

any  other  commissioner,  and  the  superior  of  any  who  has  held  the 
office  which  she  now  holds. 

It  may  seem  a  simple  undertaking  to  make  selections  upon  that 
basis,  but  I  assure  you  that  it  is  no  such  thing.  The  pressure,  the 
perfectly  natural  pressure,  that  comes  from  each  one  of  the  parties 
is  great.  You  are  urged  that  this  particular  applicant  recom- 
mended by  the  party  is  quite  as  good  as  any  other  you  may  find 
elsewhere.  He  may,  in  fact,  have  some  excellent  qualifications. 
Perhaps  the  balance  is  almost  even  between  him  and  the  other 
man ;  and  yet  that  other  man  may  have  some  particular  qualifica- 
tion, or  some  particular  experience,  that  recommends  him  more 
strongly;  and  when  the  selection  is  made,  then  the  party  that 
recommended  the  other  feels  aggrieved,  because  it  says,  "After 
all,  he  was  pretty  nearly  as  good." 

Furthermore,  it  is  by  no  means  an  easy  thing  to  persuade  the 
men  who  are  best  qualified  by  training  to  accept  appointment 
under  the  city  government.  The  field  of  private  enterprise 
offers  far  better  financial  returns  than  does  the  field  of  city  govern- 
ment ;  and  to  men  who  have  conspicuously  made  good  in  private 
business  or  in  public  office  are  offered  opportunities  in  the  private 
field  that  cannot  be  matched  in  the  public  service ;  and  it  is  there- 
fore at  times  difficult  to  entice  these  men  into  the  public  service; 
and  it  is  only  a  sense  of  public  duty  and  the  realization  of  the 
opportunity  for  real  service  that  has  led  into  the  city  government 
some  of  the  men  who  are  now  holding  office  as  commissioners. 
I  might  point  to  the  instance  of  Dr.  Goldwater,  the  commissioner 
of  health.  Dr.  Goldwater  in  the  field  of  his  private  work  was 
earning  a  return  for  himself  more  than  three  times  his  salary  as 
commissioner  of  health.  I  offered  him  the  opportunity  of  giving 
up  that  income  and  devoting  his  entire  time  to  the  administration 
of  the  department  of  health,  and  the  only  consideration  that  I  had 
to  offer  him  for  that  sacrifice  was  the  conspicuous  opportunity 
for  a  public  service.  He  accepted  the  office,  he  has  rendered  that 
service  and  he  has  demonstrated  how  an  efficient  health  department 
can  be  run.  I  am  afraid  that  we  shall  not  be  able  to  hold  him 
much  longer.  I  do  not  blame  him  for  feeling  that  he  must  return 
to  the  field  of  private  work.  You  cannot  expect  a  man  to  sacrifice 
his  own  interests  forever.  He  has  organized  that  department; 


4  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK   CITY 

he  leaves  it  when  he  goes — and  I  hope  he  will  not  go  for  some  time 
to  come — he  leaves  it  an  efficient  machine.  He  has  laid  down 
policies  that  will  not  be  departed  from  under  this  administration, 
and  that  I  believe  will  not  be  departed  from  under  any  future 
administration,  so  long  as  the  people  remain  vigilant.  But  his 
case  demonstrates  the  difficulty  which  we  experience  when  we  try 
to  bring  thoroughly  competent  and  trained  men  into  the  public 
service  and  then  to  hold  them. 

The  next  most  important  thing,  probably  equally  important, 
which  the  mayor  is  called  upon  to  do,  is  to  take  his  place  as  chair- 
man of  the  board  of  estimate  and  apportionment,  and  participate 
in  the  work  of  that  board.  The  board  of  estimate  is  the  body  of 
financial  control  of  the  city  government,  constituted  as  you  know  : 
the  mayor,  the  comptroller,  and  the  president  of  the  board  of 
aldermen,  with  three  votes  each;  the  borough  presidents  of 
Manhattan  and  Brooklyn,  with  two  votes  each;  and  the  borough 
presidents  of  The  Bronx,  Queens  and  Richmond,  with  one  vote 
each.  This  board  appropriates  all  of  the  money  devoted  to  the 
conduct  of  the  business  of  the  city  government  and  apportions 
that  money  between  departments,  bureaus  and  subdivisions  of  the 
government.  It  authorizes  the  institution  of  all  our  great  public 
works.  It  sets  up  the  financial  control  which  is  administered 
partly  by  the  comptroller  and  partly  by  the  bureaus  that  the  board 
of  estimate  has  created  for  the  conduct  of  its  own  business.  It 
in  very  large  measure  makes  the  policy  of  the  city  of  New  York. 
By  that  I  mean  that  it  determines  such  broad  questions  as  the 
construction  of  our  rapid  transit  system,  and  the  terms  and  condi- 
tions upon  which  that  system  should  be  constructed  and  operated. 
It  determines  the  plan  upon  which  our  port  is  to  be  developed. 
It  authorizes  the  institution  of  the  various  portions  of  that  plan. 
It  determines  the  financial  policy  of  the  city,  as  it  did  recently 
when  by  resolution  it  declared  the  institution  of  a  new  plan  for 
financing  permanent  public  improvements  of  a  non-revenue-pro- 
ducing class,  and  said  that  improvements  of  that  kind  should 
hereafter  be  financed  in  increasing  proportions  out  of  the  tax 
budget  of  the  city  of  New  York,  instead  of  through  the  issue  of 
fifty-year  bonds.  All  these  duties  that  board  performs,  and  I  can 
assure  you  that  it  is  about  as  busy  a  deliberative  body  as  sits 


THE  OFFICE  OF  MAYOR  5 

anywhere  in  this  country  or  elsewhere.  It  meets  once  a  week,  and 
its  calendar  usually  numbers  upward  of  200  separate  items.  In  a 
great  many  instances,  public  debate  is  had  on  the  items  of  that 
calendar.  In  every  single  instance  some  investigation  has  been 
made  by  some  agency,  either  of  the  board  of  estimate  or  of  one  of 
the  members  of  that  board.  For  the  purpose  of  making  these 
investigations  and  bringing  to  the  board  the  facts  on  which  intelli- 
gent judgment  can  be  predicated,  the  board  has  established  an 
organization.  It  has  its  chief  engineer  with  his  staff  to  pass  upon 
public  improvements.  It  has  its  bureau  of  franchises  with  the 
chief  of  that  bureau  and  his  staff  to  pass  upon  all  franchise  applica- 
tions and  the  terms  upon  which  they  may  be  granted  by  the  board 
of  estimate.  It  has  its  secretary  and  his  staff  of  clerks  for  the 
discharge  of  purely  secretarial  and  clerical  duties.  This  year  that 
board  established  two  new  bureaus.  The  first  is  the  bureau  of 
contract  supervision,  to  which  are  referred  all  plans  for  work  to  be 
done  by  contract,  and  that  bureau  reports  back  to  the  board  of 
estimate  upon  every  such  proposed  undertaking  before  it  is 
authorized  by  the  board  of  estimate.  Frequently  on  the  report 
of  that  bureau  the  board  of  estimate  determines  to  cut  down  the 
amount  of  expenditure  proposed  for  such  undertaking,  and  finds 
that  it  can  get  the  work  done  for  a  good  deal  less  money  than  was  at 
first  supposed.  Then  there  is  the  bureau  of  standardization. 
That  bureau  prepares  and  presents  to  the  board  of  estimate  for 
adoption  standard  specifications  for  supplies  and  for  work  to  be 
done.  It  considers  and  reports  to  the  committee  on  salaries  of 
the  board  of  estimate  upon  all  applications  either  for  the  increase 
of  salary,  for  the  establishment  of  a  salary  grade  or  a  new  salary 
grade,  or  for  the  increase  in  the  number  of  employes  in  any  par- 
ticular department.  You  can  see  that  through  the  agency  of  those 
bureaus  the  board  of  estimate  maintains  currently  a  close  financial 
control  over  the  operations  of  all  of  the  departments,  those  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  mayor  and  those  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  borough  presidents  and  others  as  well. 

In  addition  to  that  organization  the  board  of  estimate  has 
created  under  this  administration  a  series  of  standing  committees 
to  determine  questions  of  policy  and  the  preparation  of  great 
constructive  plans.  For  example,  it  has  the  committee  on  public 


6  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK    CITY 

education,  to  which  are  referred  all  new  plans  for  financing  new 
departures  in  the  educational  program  of  the  city.  That  committee 
also  considers  the  budget  of  the  board  of  education  when  it  comes 
time  to  make  the  budget.  The  board  of  estimate  also  has  its 
committee  on  port  and  terminal  development.  To  that  committee 
are  referred  all  plans  for  the  development  of  any  of  the  facilities 
of  the  port.  For  instance,  the  committee  laid  down  the  plan  which 
is  now  before  the  board  of  estimate  for  the  construction  of  a 
marginal  terminal  railway  in  South  Brooklyn,  over  several  miles 
of  the  waterfront  of  that  borough,  at  a  proposed  cost  of  approxi- 
mately $12,000,000,  a  great  enterprise  to  serve  the  commerce  and 
industries  of  this  city,  which,  if  it  be  completed  under  the  bill  that 
the  legislature  has  recently  enacted  and  that  we  hope  the  governor 
will  shortly  sign,  will  mean  the  addition  of  about  $100,000,000  of 
taxable  values  to  the  borough  of  Brooklyn  and  of  countless  millions 
to  the  commerce  of  the  port  of  New  York.  To  that  committee  is 
committed  the  preparation  of  plans  for  the  re-casting  of  the  term- 
inal facilities  upon  the  west  side  of  Manhattan  Island,  plans  for 
getting  the  New  York  Central  Railroad  tracks  off  the  streets  of 
the  city  of  New  York,  putting  them  under  ground  or  above 
ground,  as  the  case  may  warrant,  and  getting  them  under  cover 
either  by  tunnel  or  otherwise  where  they  now  pass  through  the 
parks  of  the  city. 

We  have  a  number  of  other  committees  in  the  board  of  estimate ; 
as  for  example,  the  committee  on  social  welfare;  the  city  plan 
committee,  to  lay  down  all  plans  for  the  development  of  the  street 
system  and  the  park  system  of  the  city;  and  a  number  of  others. 
But  these  which  I  have  named  to  you  are  the  principal  committees. 
I  should  also  tell  you  that  we  have  a  budget  committee ;  one  com- 
mittee on  the  tax  budget  and  another  on  the  corporate  stock 
budget,  although  their  membership  is  the  same.  These  are  the 
committees  which,  through  the  agency  of  the  bureaus  and  investi- 
gative bodies,  maintained  either  in  the  board  of  estimate  or  in  the 
office  of  the  commissioner  of  accounts  or  in  the  comptroller's 
office,  investigate  the  various  applications  of  the  departments  for 
appropriations  each  year  and  rrake  up  the  tax  budget  of  the  city. 
There  is  no  more  important  work  than  that,  because  on  the  making 
of  that  budget  depends  the  tax  rate  of  the  city,  depends  the 


THE  OFFICE  OF  MAYOR  7 

question  whether  or  not  departments  are  going  to  be  permitted  to 
expend  more  money  than  they  need,  depend  the  plans  for  the 
development  of  the  service  of  the  departments.  That  committee, 
acting  for  the  board  of  estimate,  determines  in  very  large  measure 
the  policies  governing  the  development  of  administration  within 
all  the  departments  of  the  city  government 

In  addition  to  membership  upon  that  board,  the  mayor  sits 
as  chairman  of  the  sinking  fund  commission.  That  commission, 
or  the  members  of  that  commission,  act  as  trustees  of  all  of  the 
sinking  funds  of  the  city  of  New  York.  It  also  has  jurisdiction 
over  the  making  of  leaseholds,  and  it  determines  the  rate  of  interest 
which  the  city  of  New  York  will  pay  upon  a  bond  issue  which  it  is 
about  to  advertise  for  bids.  The  mayor  also  sits  as  chairman  of 
the  banking  commission,  the  body  which  has  jurisdiction  over  the 
matter  of  the  designation  of  the  depositories  of  city  funds.  He  also 
sits  as  chairman  of  the  armory  board,  which  has  control  and 
jurisdiction  over  all  the  armories  of  the  city;  appropriates,  subject 
to  review  by  the  sinking  fund  commission,  the  funds  for  the  con- 
struction of  armories;  and  has  care  of  their  maintenance  and 
control.  He  also  sits  as  chairman  of  the  board  of  city  record,  which 
handles  through  its  regularly  appointed  agent  all  of  the  public 
printing  and  advertising. 

For  all  of  that  work  in  the  control  of  his  administrative  depart- 
ments, as  members  of  these  various  boards  and  commissions,  the 
mayor  has  an  exceedingly  limited  personal  staff.  He  has  his 
secretary,  his  executive  secretary,  his  assistant  secretary,  and  a 
few  clerks  and  stenographers.  Beyond  that  he  has  no  personal 
staff.  The  direct  business  of  the  office  is  to-day  divided  between 
the  secretary  and  the  executive  secretary.  The  assistant  secretary 
has  been  assigned  to  a  supervision  of  the  work  of  these  various 
boards  and  commissions  on  which  the  mayor  sits,  and  he  is  the 
only  assistant  to-day  whom  the  mayor  has  available  for  specializa- 
tion upon  the  work  of  these  boards  and  commissions.  For  the 
rest  of  his  contact  he  must  rely  upon  the  work  either  of  these 
bureaus  established  by  the  board  of  estimate,  upon  the  comptroller, 
or  upon  the  office  of  the  commissioner  of  accounts,  which,  of 
course,  is  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  mayor,  but  is  organized 
primarily  for  other  purposes. 


8  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

I  have  already  tried  to  outline  to  you  in  a  very  brief  and  rough 
manner  the  matter  of  budget  making.  There  are  a  number  of 
agencies  that  contribute  to  that  work.  The  departments  first 
submit  their  estimates.  The  plan  prior  to  the  beginning  of  this 
administration  was  for  each  department  to  submit  its  estimate  to 
the  board  of  estimate  in  just  as  large  a  sum  as  it  dared  ask  for,  and 
then  the  board  of  estimate  took  that  request  and  through  the  comp- 
troller's office  investigated  it  and  then  cut  it  down  to  just  as  low 
a  sum  as  it  dared  appropriate.  The  board  of  estimate  was  largely 
without  accurate  information  upon  which  to  predicate  the  cut 
that  it  might  make.  The  department  itself  was  largely  without 
accurate  information  upon  which  to  predicate  its  request.  We 
have  established  these  two  new  bureaus  for  investigation.  During 
the  administration  of  Mayor  Gaynor  we  established  the  budget 
committees,  which  have  been  continued  under  this  administration. 
But  one  thing  was  undertaken  last  year  which  never  was  under- 
taken before. 

Each  department  head  was  instructed  to  make  a  request  based 
not  on  the  idea  of  inflation,  but  on  the  actual  necessities  of  the 
department  and  reduced  to  the  minimum  which  he  believed  to  be 
consistent  with  those  needs.  He  was  instructed  to  submit  it  to 
the  mayor  and  not  to  the  board  of  estimate  until  it  had  been  passed 
and  reviewed  by  the  mayor.  Each  department  head  did  submit 
his  request  to  me.  I  went  over  those  requests,  acting  through  the 
commissioner  of  accounts  and  through  the  city  chamberlain,  who 
personally  represented  me ;  and  when  he  had  reviewed  the  requests 
and  they  had  been  recast  in  the  light  of  our  examination,  they 
were  sent  forward  to  the  board  of  estimate  over  my  signature  in 
the  form  of  an  executive  budget,  which  had  never  been  attempted 
before,  and  that  executive  budget,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history 
of  the  city,  represented  a  decrease  in  its  total  request  from  the 
actual  appropriation  of  the  year  before.  When  the  budget  went 
into  the  hands  of  the  board  of  estimate  it  came  under  the  scrutiny 
of  these  bureaus.  It  was  again  scrutinized  by  the  commissioner 
of  accounts  and  by  the  chamberlain,  now  sitting  as  a  member  of 
the  sub-committee  on  budget  appointed  by  the  budget  committee 
of  the  board  of  estimate.  And  as  a  result  of  all  that  work  and 
re-scrutiny  these  appropriations  when  made,  taken  together  with 


THE  OFFICE  OF  MAYOR  9 

the  appropriations  of  the  offices  of  the  five  borough  presidents, 
represented  a  net  reduction  of  $2,000,000  under  the  actual  appro- 
priations for  the  year  previous. 

That  represents,  to  my  mind,  intelligent  and  scientific  budget 
making,  as  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  develop  it  up  to  date.  The 
budget  of  next  year  will  be  made  in  the  same  way,  after  the  same 
kind  of  careful  scrutiny;  and  I  want  to  emphasize  this  fact,  that 
effective  and  scientific  budget  making  means  not  merely  scrutiny 
of  the  requests  of  the  departments  by  the  board  of  estimate, 
analysis  of  the  requests  by  the  agencies  of  the  board  of  estimate, 
and  control  exercised  there,  but  it  must  also  mean  a  painstaking 
continuous  effort  on  the  part  of  the  departments  and  their  adminis- 
trative heads  themselves  to  predicate  requests  upon  actual  needs, 
after  those  needs  have  been  ascertained  by  careful  and  scientific 
analysis  in  the  departments,  made  by  the  heads  of  the  depart- 
ments themselves;  and  in  no  other  way  will  a  scientific  budget 
be  made  or  will  this  city  be  able  to  keep  its  budget  down  to  the 
actual  requirements  of  the  departments. 

Through  his  membership  in  the  board  of  estimate,  and  through 
his  membership  on  the  constructive  and  most  important  com- 
mittees of  that  board,  the  mayor  contributes  to  the  making  of 
city  policy.  He  must  also  contribute  to  that  individually  as  head 
of  the  city  government.  There  are  a  great  many  problems  which 
are  handled  both  within  the  board  of  estimate  and  independently 
of  the  board  of  estimate,  upon  which  the  mayor  must  exercise  a 
certain  leadership  in  community  thought.  For  example,  we  are 
facing  to-day  an  acute  and  serious  problem  in  the  matter  of 
taxation.  The  budget  of  New  York,  by  reason  of  causes  over 
which  no  member  of  the  present  board  of  estimate  and  appor- 
tionment has  control,  by  reason  of  inherited  conditions,  due  in  a 
very  large  degree  to  mandatory  legislation  which  has  come  to 
this  city  from  Albany  without  the  request  of  its  own  officials, 
the  budget,  we  find,  is  going  constantly  up  to  higher  and  higher 
figures,  without  the  power  of  the  board  of  estimate  or  the  mayor 
to  keep  it  down.  For  instance,  the  budget  of  1915  went  up 
$6,000,000  over  the  budget  of  1914  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  we 
reduced  the  administrative  cost  of  government,  that  which  is 
under  our  control,  by  $2,000,000;  and  this  Was  due  to  the  fact 


10  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK    CITY 

that  we  had  to  provide  in  the  budget  for  four  and  a  half  millions 
more  of  uncollectible  taxes  in  1915  than  we  did  in  1914,  that  we 
had  to  provide  for  approximately  $3,000,000  of  increase  due  to 
the  cost  of  the  $100,000,000  loan  that  New  York  was  compelled 
to  negotiate  as  a  result  of  the  war  conditions  that  we  faced  in 
common  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  when  we  were  compelled 
to  secure  that  money  in  order  to  meet  our  foreign  obligations  in 
gold,  and  not  default  the  city's  obligations;  due  also  to  the  fact 
that  last  winter  we  had  an  unprecedented  condition  of  snow 
followed  by  falling  temperature,  so  that  the  street  cleaning  depart- 
ment was  compelled  to  cart  from  the  city's  streets  almost  every 
cubic  yard  of  snow  that  fell  in  those  two  great  snowstorms.  Nature 
did  not  aid  the  street  cleaning  department  last  winter  as  it  has  done 
this  winter.  That  cost  the  city  of  New  York  upwards  of 
$2,000,000.  The  increase  was  due,  also,  to  the  fact  that  we  had 
to  provide  in  the  budget  about  $1,800,000  as  the  increased  cost  of 
the  educational  work  of  the  city.  That  increase  was  occasioned 
in  part  by  the  mandatory  increases  of  teachers'  salaries  prescribed 
by  law,  and  in  part  by  the  additional  teachers  that  we  had  to 
provide  for  to  teach  the  new  and  additional  pupils  that  had 
already  come  into  the  system  or  were  naturally  to  be  expected 
during  the  year  1915. 

These  things  raised  the  budget  $6,000,000  despite  the  cut  of 
$2,000,000  in  administrative  cost.  Next  year  the  city  of  New 
York,  through  the  exercise  of  economy  in  administration  and 
through  certain  reductions  which  it  will  be  able  to  effect  in  uncol- 
lectible taxes,  and  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  there  will  be  no 
$100,000,000  loan,  we  hope,  to  negotiate  next  year,  would  be  able 
to  keep  its  budget  constant  and  its  tax  rate  constant,  were  it  not 
for  the  fact  that  next  year  we  face,  as  far  as  we  are  able  to  see  to-day, 
a  direct  state  tax,  in  addition  to  our  own  budgetary  requirements. 
New  York  pays  70%  of  any  direct  state  tax,  and  so  we  must  look 
forward  to  an  increase  in  our  budget  due  to  that  direct  state  tax 
if  it  comes.  In  the  year  that  follows,  because  of  the  new  financial 
policy  of  carrying  in  the  budget  non-income-producing  public 
improvements,  we  must  expect  still  greater  increases.  Therefore, 
this  problem  of  taxation  becomes  a  real  and  pressing  problem. 
There  are  three  courses  that  are  open  as  I  see  it,  and  we  must 


THE  OFFICE   OF  MAYOR  11 

follow  one  of  them.  We  must  either  lay  additional  taxes  upon 
real  estate — and  that  is  highly  undesirable,  because  real  estate 
is  already  burdened  about  to  its  limit,  or  we  must  reduce  the 
amount  or  the  character  of  service  that  the  city  renders  to  its 
people.  We  must  cut  out  police  protection,  health  protection, 
education  service,  or  some  one  of  the  great  services  that  the  city 
renders.  Or,  as  a  third  possibility,  we  must  develop  some  new 
sources  of  municipal  revenue;  and  that  can  be  done  only  by 
devising  some  new  and  additional  system  of  taxation.  So  I  say 
that  that  problem  of  taxation,  which  from  time  immemorial  has 
been  the  most  difficult  problem  of  government,  is  here  with  us 
to-day  and  must  be  solved  by  the  present  city  administration. 
In  the  solution  of  that  problem  the  mayor  must  take  upon  himself 
the  burden  of  leadership.  Now,  no  system  of  taxation  is  going  to 
be  popular  with  the  people  who  are  to  be  taxed.  No  plan  for  the 
cutting  of  broad  services  is  going  to  be  popular;  perhaps  it  will  be 
even  less  so  than  a  new  plan  of  taxation ;  the  results  flowing  from 
the  cut  of  service  in  health  protection  or  in  education  or  in  police 
protection  might  be  far  more  serious  to  the  city  and  its  people 
than  the  development  of  new  sources  of  income  through  taxation. 
But  there  is  a  problem  which  must  be  solved  by  the  mayor  and  the 
board  of  estimate,  and  it  requires  about  as  much  time  as  one 
individual  has  to  give  even  when  he  gets  the  fullest  help  and 
support  that  intelligent  citizen  committees  and  an  intelligent 
board  of  estimate  can  give. 

I  have  already  outlined  the  difficult  question  of  financial  policy 
which  we  solved  last  September  when  we  declared  that  these 
permanent  improvements  shall  hereafter  be  carried  in  increasing 
proportion  in  the  budget  until  they  are  entirely  so  carried.  That 
problem  had  to  be  solved  on  a  few  days'  notice.  Although  it  had 
been  long  under  consideration,  the  board  of  estimate  did  not 
come  to  the  point  of  actually  dealing  with  it  until  it  was  precipi- 
tated by  the  negotiation  of  the  $100,000,000  loan,  and  then  we 
felt  the  time  had  come  to  take  a  stand,  and  we  declared  for  this 
new  policy,  a  policy  which  puts  New  York  city  for  the  first  time 
in  its  history  upon  the  sound  financial  basis  of  "  pay-as-you-go  "- 
a  basis  upon  which  every  private  enterprise  must  rest  if  it  does 
not  wish  to  go  ultimately  into  the  hands  of  the  receiver  or  the 


12  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

bankruptcy  courts.  New  York  stands  upon  that  basis  now,  but 
in  order  to  get  there  and  to  stay  there  during  the  next  few  years, 
it  is  going  to  be  necessary  to  lay  a  temporarily  increased  burden 
through  the  budget  upon  the  tax-paying  community  as  the  price 
of  putting  the  city  upon  that  sound  financial  basis.  That  was  a 
difficult  problem.  It  had  to  be  solved  last  September.  This 
board  of  estimate  faced  it  frankly  and  solved  it  in  that  way,  and 
I  believe  that  the  taxpayers  of  a  few  years  hence  will  have  ample 
cause  to  thank  the  present  city  government  for  solving  the  question 
as  it  has  done,  when  the  interest  payments  included  in  the  budget 
have  been  reduced  to  a  point  more  than  enough  to  balance  the 
increase  which  we  have  to  carry  on  account  of  these  permanent 
improvements. 

I  had  intended  to  talk  to  you  at  some  length  about  the  functions 
of  the  mayor  in  dealing  with  legislation  that  comes  either  from  the 
legislature  at  Albany  or  from  the  local  legislature,  the  board  of 
aldermen.  With  regard  to  the  former  he  has  a  suspensory  veto 
of  a  local  bill;  that  is  to  say,  he  may  veto  it  and  it  stands  dis- 
approved, unless  the  legislature  repasses  it  over  the  mayor's  veto, 
which  it  may  do  by  a  majority  vote.  That  has  been  a  most  neces- 
sary safeguard  to  the  city.  Every  year  we  get  vicious  and  inter- 
fering bills  which  the  mayor  of  the  city  must  veto  in  the  interest 
either  of  the  taxpayers  or  of  the  development  of  the  community. 
It  looks  as  if  we  were  going  to  get  such  a  bill  in  a  few  days.  The 
senate  of  the  state  this  afternoon  passed  the  so-called  Lockwood- 
Ellenbogen  bill,  which  provides  for  the  disruption  of  the  tenement 
house  department,  the  department  of  water  supply,  the  fire 
department,  the  health  department,  and  the  license  department, 
by  taking  from  all  of  them  jurisdiction  over  the  construction  of 
buildings  and  distributing  that  jurisdiction  among  the  various 
offices  of  the  five  borough  presidents.  I  shall  not  go  into  all  the 
features  of  that  bill  which  cause  me  to  make  the  statement  I  am 
about  to  make,  but  they  will  be  discussed  sufficiently  in  public 
within  the  next  few  days.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  that  bill,  conceived 
by  the  land  speculators  of  this  city,  has  been  put  forward  primarily 
for  the  purpose  of  prostituting  the  administration  of  the  tenement 
house  law  of  the  city  of  New  York  and  of  breaking  down  the 
effective  administration  of  that  law  and  the  other  laws  which 


THE  OFFICE  OF  MAYOR  13 

provide  for  a  proper  regulation  of  building  construction  in  the 
city  of  New  York.  It  has  behind  it,  too,  political  purposes,  but 
they  are  insignificant  in  comparison  with  that  primary  and  vicious 
purpose  of  breaking  down  the  administration  of  those  necessary 
regulative  laws.  The  bill  will  come  to  me  if  it  passes  the  assembly. 
There  is  still,  perhaps,  the  chance  that  it  will  not  pass  that  house 
of  the  legislature.  It  will  come  to  me  if  it  does  pass,  and  I  am 
required  under  the  law  to  give  a  hearing  on  that  bill.  I  suppose 
theoretically  I  should  not  take  a  position  with  regard  to  it  until 
after  that  hearing ;  but  I  know  a  vicious  piece  of  legislation  when 
I  see  it,  and  I  am  going  to  veto  that  bill  if  it  comes  to  me.  And  then 
it  will  go  back.  No  doubt  the  legislature  may  be  asked  to  pass  it 
over  my  veto ;  and  whether  it  does  or  not  will  depend  very  largely 
on  the  extent  to  which  the  voice  of  the  people  of  this  city  interested 
in  the  effective  administration  of  these  laws  makes  itself  heard 
in  the  senate  and  assembly  chambers  at  Albany.  The  mayor 
has  a  like  veto  upon  ordinances  enacted  by  the  board  of  aldermen, 
but  there  they  may  be  over-ridden  only  by  a  larger  vote.  To  that 
extent  he  has  control,  qualified  control,  over  legislation  both  state 
and  city  affecting  the  administration  and  the  conduct  of  the 
government  of  the  city  of  New  York. 

The  mayor  has  under  his  control  these  twenty-nine  administra- 
tive departments.  He  appoints  their  heads.  He  is  responsible 
for  the  work  that  they  do.  If  it  be  good  or  bad,  he  is  responsible. 
The  theory  of  the  relation  of  the  mayoralty  to  these  departments 
in  the  past  has  been  this:  That  the  mayor  should  appoint  the 
head  of  the  department  and  send  him  out  to  make  good,  send  him 
out  to  administer;  if  he  got  into  trouble,  then  try  to  help  him  out; 
if  he  got  into  too  serious  trouble  or  failed  to  make  good,  or  did 
something  calling  for  such  action,  then  remove  him  and  appoint 
a  successor.  That  theory  has  been  due  very  largely  to  the  enor- 
mous amount  of  time  which  the  mayor  must  devote  to  the  other 
duties  of  his  office,  to  his  participation  in  the  work  of  these  various 
boards  and  commissions,  to  the  time  that  he  must  devote  to  inter- 
views in  .his  office.  Everybody  wants  to  see  the  mayor  and  see 
him  personally.  People  are  not  satisfied  with  seeing  secretaries; 
they  must  see  the  mayor;  and  no  matter  how  trivial  the  business, 
whether  it  is  the  restoration  of  a  corporation  inspector  in  a  depart- 


14  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK    CITY 

ment  who  has  been  dropped  for  inefficiency,  or  whether  it  is  the 
transfer  of  some  minor  clerk  from  one  bureau  to  another,  they  feel 
they  must  see  the  mayor.  He  is  called  upon  to  keep  the  door  of 
his  office  open  to  the  public,  and  after  all  it  is  proper  that  he  should, 
because  the  public  ought  to  have  direct  contact  with  the  mayor; 
people  ought  to  have  access  to  him,  and  he  must  reserve  enough 
time  to  see  the  people  who  come  to  the  office  and  want  to  see  him. 
Then  he  has,  if  I  may  call  them  such,  a  number  of  social  duties 
to  discharge.  He  must  go  out  and  attend  functions  and  make 
speeches.  They  consume  a  great  deal  of  time  and  take  a  good  deal 
of  effort;  they  consume  energy.  They  are  frequently  disruptive 
of  a  business  day.  But  he  must  discharge  these  duties. 

Then  the  correspondence  of  the  mayor's  office  is  enormous,  and 
you  would  be  surprised  to  know  how  utterly  inconsequential  and 
ridiculous  some  of  it  is.  But  it  must  all  be  attended  to.  Whether 
it  be  the  man  who  writes  from  Canada  and  wants  the  mayor's 
office  to  find  a  wife  for  him,  or  whether  it  be  the  wife  whose  husband 
has  lost  employment  and  who  writes  for  help,  all  this  correspon- 
dence must  receive  attention,  and  that  takes  time.  It  takes  the 
time  of  a  very  material  proportion  of  the  staff.  There  are  a 
thousand  things  that  consume  time  and  effort,  and  there  is  not 
enough  time  left  for  the  mayor  to  supervise  the  work  of  the 
departments  and  to  be  actually  as  well  theoretically  responsible 
for  it.  Therefore,  the  theory  has  prevailed  that  I  have  indicated. 

Now,  it  has  seemed  to  me  that  the  mayor  ought  to  be  more 
than  merely  the  head  of  the  city  government  sitting  in  the  City 
Hall  ready  to  receive  the  public,  appointing  the  heads  of  the 
departments  and  sending  them  out  to  make  good  independently, 
or  to  fail  independently;  that  he  ought  to  be  really  the  business 
manager  of  the  city  of  New  York,  that  he  ought  to  have  the  close 
contact  that  would  enable  him  to  become  an  effective  business 
manager.  There  are  problems  of  pure  administration  in  the 
departments  that  ought  to  come  back  to  the  mayor  for  settlement. 
There  are  problems  of  policy  in  the  departments  that  ought  to 
come  back  to  him  for  settlement.  He  cannot  give  the  time  to 
them  that  he  should.  He  needs  an  agency  through  which  to  keep 
himself  in  contact  with  those  problems,  through  which  to  work 
co-operatively  with  the  heads  of  the  departments  in  solving  these 


THE   OFFICE   OF  MAYOR  15 

problems  and  in  building  up  constructively  better  administration 
and  better  control.  I  tried  to  create  that  kind  of  an  administrative 
agency  last  year.  I  asked  the  legislature  to  make  the  office  of  the 
commissioner  of  accounts  constructive  in  name  and  functions  as 
well  as  investigative.  I  asked  it  to  make  that  commission  one- 
headed  and  to  call  it  the  department  of  administration,  to  keep 
the  investigative  functions,  to  add  the  constructive,  to  give  me  in 
short  an  agency  which  I  could  send  out  into  the  departments, 
analyzing  their  problems,  working  with  their  commissioners, 
building  up  co-operatively  with  them,  but  with  the  advantage  of  a 
detached  point  of  view,  a  central  point  of  view,  the  constructive 
plans  of  administration  in  those  departments.  Working  through 
the  office  of  the  commissioner  of  accounts  as  it  is  now,  and  with  the 
aid  of  the  city  chamberlain,  we  were  able  to  cut  down  the  cost  in 
these  departments  by  $2,000,000,  or  by  $1,500,000  in  my  depart- 
ments ;  and  we  were  able  at  the  same  time  to  give  a  greater  measure 
of  service  and  a  better  quality  of  service.  If  the  mayor  were 
equipped  with  an  effective  administrative  arm,  through  the 
reorganization  of  the  office  of  the  commissioner  of  accounts,  which 
the  legislature  alone  can  authorize,  he  would  have  that  means  of 
maintaining  contact  with  administration  and  control  over  it 
that  he  does  not  have  to-day.  I  do  not  believe  that  we  shall  get 
the  fully  effective  and  economical  administration  of  the  depart- 
ments of  this  city  government  that  we  all  want,  and  that  the 
people  of  New  York  are  entitled  to,  until  the  mayor  is  equipped 
with  that  administrative  arm  through  which  to  accomplish  this 
result. 

I  do  not  pretend  that  this  review  of  the  work  of  the  mayor's 
office  is  complete.  It  has  been  extremely  sketchy  and  rough  in  its 
outlines.  It  gives  you  no  adequate  comprehension  of  the  problems 
that  are  presented  to  the  mayor  or  of  the  work  that  he  has  to  do; 
but  perhaps  it  will  suggest  to  you  how  some  of  them  come  up, 
how  broad  some  of  them  are,  and  how  complex  is  the  whole 
organization  through  which  they  are  attacked.  No  administra- 
tion in  New  York  will  be  successful  that  does  not  have  continuous 
citizen  support.  I  illustrated  through  the  Lockwood-Ellenbogen 
bill  how  citizen  support  may  be  necessary  at  times.  There  are  a 
thousand  cases  in  which  it  is  necessary  in  order  that  the  hands  of 


16  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK   CITY 

public  officials  may  be  supported,  and  that  they  may  be  enabled 
to  get  the  constructive  results  for  which  they  are  working. 
Citizen  support  can  be  developed  and  can  be  had  only  by  keeping 
the  citizenship  of  the  city  constantly  apprised  of  the  workings  of 
the  departments  and  constantly  informed  as  to  the  facts.  We 
are  trying  to  do  that  under  this  administration,  but  we  need  the 
co-operation  of  the  citizens.  If  we  are  to  get  the  results,  if  you 
want  to  be  well  governed,  you-  have  got  to  take  a  continuous 
interest  in  the  government  of  your  city. 

It  may  be  trite,  but  it  is  true,  that  the  people  of  a  city  or  of  a 
state  or  of  a  nation  get  government  just  as  good  or  just  as  bad  as 
they  deserve.  That  means  that  they  get  government  good  in 
direct  proportion  to  the  interest  that  they  take  in  it.  If  you  take 
an  interest  in  your  city  government,  if  you  study  the  facts,  you  will 
find  out  what  we  are  trying  to  do,  and  whether  we  deserve  your 
support  or  not.  Then  if  you  give  us  your  support  continuously 
from  day  to  day,  we  shall  be  able  to  get  for  you  the  results  which 
the  people  of  this  city  expect  and  to  which  they  are  entitled. 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND   SANITATION 

S.  S.  GOLDWATER 
Commissioner  of  the  Department  of  Health 

AJ  examination  of  the  structure  and  functions  of  the  depart- 
ment of  health  discloses  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of 
existing  governmental  agencies.  Whatever  may  be  the 
shortcomings  of  the  department  in  practise,  in  theory  at  least 
it  is  equipped  with  ample  power  and  with  adequate  machinery 
for  the  accomplishment  of  the  duty,  assigned  to  it  by  law,  of 
promoting  the  health  of  the  city. 

Legally,  the  department  springs  from  certain  sections  of  the 
city  charter;  this  may  be  said  to  be  its  lineal  descent.  Col- 
laterally, the  department  is  related  to  the  police  power  of  the 
state.  But  for  whatever  the  department  does  there  must  be  a 
scientific  as  well  as  a  legal  basis.  For  its  right  of  way  the  depart- 
ment is  indebted  to  the  police  power;  for  the  construction  of  the 
road  upon  which  it  advances  toward  its  goal,  it  looks  to  medical 
science,  and  it  is  fortunate  in  being  authorized  to  contribute  to 
medical  science  by  its  own  researches. 

To  promote  the  health  of  the  city,  the  board  of  health  is  em- 
powered to  conduct  laboratory,  field,  and  statistical  investigations, 
to  enforce  all  state  laws  that  have  relation  to  health,  to  create 
a  municipal  sanitary  code,  to  enforce  the  sanitary  code  by  suit- 
able penalties,  to  issue  orders  for  the  abatement  of  nuisances  or 
of  conditions  inimical  to  life  and  health,  and  to  enforce  such  orders 
by  its  own  agents.  All  of  these  vast  powers  and  their  attendant 
responsibilities  rest  upon  three  officials  who,  under  the  law,  con- 
stitute the  board  of  health,  namely,  the  commissioner  of  health, 
the  commissioner  of  police,  and  the  health  officer  of  the  port 
of  New  York. 

Since  it  is  manifestly  impossible,  within  the  space  allotted  to 
this  paper,  either  to  trace  the  history  of  the  department  of  health 
or  to  describe  completely  its  manifold  activities,  the  present  state- 
ment will  be  limited  to  a  summary  of  the  progress  made  by  the 
department  during  the  past  year.  The  presentation  of  such  a 

(17) 


18  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK    CITY 

summary  seems  especially  appropriate,  since  one  of  the  objects 
of  these  conferences  is  to  reveal  the  government  of  the  city  of 
New  York  in  actual  operation.  Before  proceeding  to  discuss  the 
department's  progress,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  present  a  few 
figures  showing  the  extent  of  its  financial  operations  and  the 
magnitude  of  its  personal  organization,  and  to  state  at  somewhat 
greater  length  its  duties  under  the  charter. 

On  January  1st,  1914,  there  were,  connected  with  the  depart- 
ment in  an  official  capacity  3,428  persons;  of  this  number,  79, 
all  physicians,  gave  gratuitous  service  in  hospitals  or  clinics. 
The  corresponding  figures  for  January  1st,  1915,  are:  Total 
number  of  persons  employed  in  the  department,  3,421,  of  whom 
95  are  unpaid. 

The  total  sum  appropriated  for  the  current  expenses  of  the 
department  of  health  for  the  year  1914  was  $3,534,240.50.  Of 
this  sum  $3,363,767.85  was  expended  by  the  department,  leaving 
a  balance  of  $170,472.65,  largely  the  result  of  careful  economies 
in  administration.  The  sum  of  $17,178.50  was  transferred  to 
other  departments  to  cover  deficiencies.  There  remained  at  the 
end  of  the  year  an  unexpended  balance  of  $153,294.15. 

The  following  extracts  from  the  Greater  New  York  charter 
show  the  extent  of  the  responsibility  with  which  the  board  of 
health  is  charged  by  law: 

It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  board  of  health  to  aid  in  the  enforcement 
of,  and,  so  far  as  practicable,  to  enforce  all  laws  of  this  state,  applicable 
in  said  district  (i.  e.,  the  city  and  the  waters  adjacent  thereto),  to  the 
preservation  of  human  life,  or  to  the  care,  promotion,  or  protection  of 
health;  and  said  board  may  exercise  the  authority  given  by  said  laws 
to  enable  it  to  discharge  the  duty  hereby  imposed;  this  section  is  in- 
tended to  include  all  laws  relative  to  cleanliness,  and  to  the  use  or  sale 
of  poisonous,  unwholesome,  deleterious,  or  adulterated  drugs,  medi- 
cines or  food,  and  the  necessary  sanitary  supervision  of  the  purity  and 
wholesomeness  of  the  water  supply  for  the  city  of  New  York. 

The  board  is  authorized  to  require  reports  and  information  relative 
to  the  safety  of  life  and  promotion  of  health,  from  all  public  dispen- 
saries, hospitals,  asylums,  infirmaries,  prisons  and  schools,  and  from  all 
other  public  institutions,  and  from  the  managers  and  occupants  of  all 
theaters  and  other  places  of  public  resort  or  amusement. 

The  board  shall  use  all  reasonable  means  for  ascertaining  the  exist- 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND   SANITATION  19 

ence  and  cause  of  disease  or  peril  to  life  or  health,  and  for  averting  the 
same. 

It  shall  be  the  duty  of  said  board  to  gather  and  preserve  such  in- 
formation and  facts,  relating  to  death,  disease  and  health,  from  other 
parts  of  this  state,  but  especially  in  said  city,  as  may  be  useful  in  the 
discharge  of  its  duties,  and  contribute  to  the  promotion  of  health,  or 
the  security  of  life  in  the  state  of  New  York. 

The  sanitary  code,  which  shall  be  in  force  in  the  city  of  New  York 
the  first  day  of  January,  nineteen  hundred  and  two,  to  be  binding  and 
in  force,  is  hereby  declared  and  shall  continue  to  be  so  binding  and  in 
force,  except  as  the  same  may,  from  time  to  time,  be  revised,  altered, 
amended  or  annulled. 

The  board  of  health  is  hereby  authorized  and  empowered,  from  time 
to  time,  to  add  to  and  to  alter,  amend  or  annul  any  part  of  the  said 
sanitary  code,  and  may  therein  publish  additional  provisions  for  the 
security  of  life  and  health  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  confer  addi- 
tional powers  on  the  department  of  health,  not  inconsistent  with  the 
constitution  or  laws  of  this  state,  and  may  provide  for  the  enforcement 
of  the  said  sanitary  code  by  such  fines,  penalties,  forfeitures,  or  im- 
prisonment as  may  by  ordinance  be  prescribed. 

The  board  of  health  may  embrace  in  said  sanitary  code  all  matters 
and  subjects  to  which,  and  so  far  as,  the  power  and  authority  of  said 
department  of  health  extends,  not  limiting  their  application  to  the  sub- 
ject of  health  only. 

The  number  of  deaths  reported  during  the  year  1914  was 
74,803,  making  a  rate  of  13.40  per  1,000  of  the  population.  This 
is  the  lowest  death  rate  ever  recorded  in  the  city  of  New  York. 
If  we  compare  this  with  the  previous  year's  record,  namely, 
73,902  deaths  and  a  rate  of  13.76  for  the  year  1913,  we  find  that 
there  has  been  a  decrease  in  -the  death  rate  of  .36  of  a  point. 
How  much  this  means  to  the  community  may  perhaps  be  better 
appreciated  by  saying  that  if  the  death  rate  of  1913  had  prevailed 
during  the  past  year,  there  would  have  been  2,010  more  deaths 
than  actually  occurred. 

The  most  noteworthy  feature  of  the  decreased  mortality  was 
the  record-breaking  low  infant  death  rate,  94.6  per  1,000  children 
born.  This  is  the  lowest  infant  death  rate  ever  attained  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  and  the  lowest  of  any  large  city  in  this  country. 
The  infant  death  rate  in  1913  was  102,  which  was  the  lowest 


20  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

rate  in  the  city  up  to  that  year,  so  that  the  decrease  this  year 
in  the  rate  over  last  year  is  a  little  over  6  per  cent. 

From  the  standpoint  of  general  organization  and  departmental 
efficiency,  the  most  important  general  order  issued  during  the 
year  was  one  requiring  full-time  service  on  the  part  of  bureau 
chiefs  and  other  important  department  officials.  This  order 
reads  as  follows: 

Directors  of  bureaus  who  are  in  receipt  of  salaries  of  $5,000  or  more 
per  annum,  and  assistant  directors  of  bureaus,  assistant  sanitary  super- 
intendents, chiefs  of  divisions  and  all  other  medical  officers  who  are  in 
receipt  of  salaries  of  $3,000  or  more  per  annum,  are  hereby  declared 
to  be  full-time  officers  of  the  department  and,  as  such,  are  required  to 
give  their  services  to  the  department  during  the  full  working  day. 

They  shall  not  be  allowed  to  engage  in  the  general  practise  of  medi- 
cine, or  in  any  other  regular  occupation  or  business.  With  the  approval 
of  the  commissioner,  they  may  be  permitted  to  engage  in  public  health 
work  outside  of  the  department,  but  the  department  retains  the  right 
to  determine  whether  such  outside  work  interferes  with,  or  is  preju- 
dicial to,  the  proper  performance  of  departmental  duty,  and,  after  due 
notice,  may  withdraw  such  permission  at  any  time. 

Public  health  administration  thus  becomes  a  career — though, 
it  must  be  acknowledged,  not  a  particularly  remunerative  one — 
for  a  limited  number  of  qualified  men  in  the  city  of  New  York. 

The  sanitary  code  was  completely  rewritten  during  the  latter 
part  of  1914.  In  its  new  form  it  is  definitely  correlated  with 
the  ordinances  of  the  board  of  aldermen,  and  is  known  as  chapter 
20  of  the  code  of  ordinances  of  the  city  of  New  York.  It  is 
divided  into  eighteen  articles  which  bear  the  following  titles : 
Definitions  Midwifery  and  care  of  children 

Animals  Miscellaneous  provisions 

Births,  marriages  and  deaths     Offensive  materials 
Buildings  Plumbing,  drainage,  ventilation  and 

Cold  storage  sewage 

Coroners  Railroads 

Diseases  Street  conditions 

Drugs  and  medicines  Trades,  occupations  and  businesses 

Food  and  drink  Vessels  and  seamen 

General  provisions 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND  SANITATION  21 

Among  new  sections  of  the  code,  the  most  important,  from  the 
standpoint  of  public  health,  are  the  following: 

1.  Requiring  the  naming  of  ingredients  of  "patent"  medicines 
on  the  labels  of  the  packages,  or,  in  lieu  thereof,  the  registration 
of  the  ingredients  with  the  department  of  health. 

2.  Requiring  employers  to  use  reasonably  effective  devices, 
means  and  methods  to  prevent  the  contraction  by  employes  of 
illness  or  disease  incident  to  the  work  or  process  in  which  such 
employes  are  engaged. 

3.  Providing  for  the   sanitation,   ventilation   and  lighting  of 
theaters  and  other  places  of  assembly,  and  of  all  places  where 
people  are  employed. 

4.  Requiring  owners  of  stables  to  obtain  permits  from  the 
board  of  health,  and  to  conduct  their  establishments  in  accordance 
with  prescribed  regulations. 

5.  Regulating  the  cold  storage  of  food. 

6.  Requiring  physicians,  when  reporting  infectious  diseases,  to 
specify  whether  the  individual  affected  has  been  engaged  in  hand- 
ling food  products. 

7.  Requiring  institutions  and  private  physicians  to  report  cases 
of  venereal  diseases. 

8.  Requiring  superintendents  of  hospitals  and  private  practi- 
tioners to  report  occupational  diseases  and  injuries. 

9.  Requiring  physicians  and  superintendents  of  hospitals  to 
report  groups  of  cases  of  suspected  food  poisoning. 

10.  Providing,  in  the  interest  of  school  children,  for  the  super- 
vision, and  in  case  of  necessity  only,  for  the  exclusion  from  school 
of   teachers   suffering  from  pulmonary  tuberculosis  in   a   com- 
municable form. 

11.  Prohibiting  persons  who  are  suffering  from  communicable 
diseases  from  working  in  their  homes  upon  articles  intended  for 
general  consumption. 

12.  Prohibiting  the  distribution  of  free  samples  of  proprietary 
medicines  or  other  substances  of  an  alleged  medicinal  or  curative 
character  intended  for  internal  human  use. 

13.  Regulating    the    free    distribution    of    vaccine,    antitoxin, 
serum  and  cultures,  and  providing  a  penalty  for  physicians  who 


22  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK   CITY 

accept  payment  for  vaccines  and  analogous  products  which  have 
been  obtained  from  the  department  gratuitously. 

14.  Providing  that  persons  ill  with  communicable  disease  may 
not  handle  or  sell  food. 

15.  Providing  for  decent  and  clean  conditions  in  food  manu- 
factories, hotel  and  restaurant  kitchens  and  retail  food  stores. 

16.  Providing  for  the  physical  examination  of  children  at  the 
time  of  entering  public  school  by  private  physicians  or  by  medical 
inspectors  of  the  department,  of  health.       (This   section  corre- 
sponds in  substance  with  a  statute  which  applies  to  all  parts  of 
the  state  except  the  city  of  New  York.) 

17.  Providing  for  the  control  by  permit  of  all  private  hospitals 
other  than  those  which  are  specifically  authorized  by  law. 

18.  Requiring  the  lessees  or  owners  of  marsh  lands  and  sunken 
lots  to  fill  in  or  drain  the  same  or  to  employ  such  other  methods  as 
will  prevent  the  breeding  of  mosquitoes. 

19.  Providing  for  the  sanitation  of  passenger  cars  and  omnibuses. 

20.  Regulating  public  laundries. 

21.  Prohibiting  offensive  and  dangerous  practises  in  the  manu- 
facture of  cigars  and  cigarettes. 

22.  Requiring  the  removal  of  harmful  dust,  gases  and  other 
impurities  from  work  rooms  by  suction  devices. 

23.  Prohibiting  the  sale  of  bichloride  of  mercury  except  upon  a 
physician's  prescription. 

24.  Prohibiting  unmuzzled  dogs  in  streets  and  other  public 
places. 

25.  Prohibiting  the  use  of  wood  alcohol  in  preparations  intended 
for  human  use. 

26.  Prohibiting  the  sale  of  opium,  morphine,  and  other  habit- 
forming  drugs  except  on  the  written  prescription  of  a  physician. 

27.  Requiring  the  manufacturers  and  importers  of  artificial  or 
natural  spring  water  to  file  with  the  department  certain  informa- 
tion concerning  the  character  and  composition  of  the  water. 

28.  Prescribing  the  duties  of  physicians,  hospitals,  dispensaries, 
and  other  institutions  with  respect  to  report  able  diseases. 

29.  Prohibiting  the  common  use  of  forks  at  free  lunch  counters. 
Among  the  important  regulations  promulgated  by  the   depart- 
ment during  1914  are  the  following: 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND  SANITATION  23 

1.  Regulations   providing  for   sanitary   conditions  in   floating 
baths,  stationary  pools,  and  bathing  beaches. 

2.  Regulations  governing  sanitary  conditions  of  tents,  camps 
and  bungalows. 

3.  Regulations  regarding  the  use  of  coffin  seals  in  cases  of 
death  from  infectious  diseases. 

4.  Regulations  regarding  the  sale  of  milk  and  cream,  including 
sections  relating  to  bacterial  content. 

5.  Regulations  safeguarding  the  health  of  children  cared  for  in 
day  nurseries. 

6.  Regulations   governing  the  handling,   storing   and   sale  of 
food  in  stores,  factories,  hotels,  restaurants,  etc. 

There  was  established  in  1914  a  bureau  known  as  the  bureau  of 
public  health  education.  The  working  staff  of  this  bureau  was 
recruited  within  the  department  by  the  transfer  of  workers  of 
special  talent  as  writers,  compilers  and  lecturers,  from  existing 
branches  of  the  service.  Its  creation,  therefore,  committed  the 
city  to  no  new  expense.  The  functions  of  the  bureau  of  public 
health  education  as  thus  far  developed  include:  the  preparation 
and  issuance  of  press  bulletins,  of  a  weekly  bulletin  sent  to  all 
physicians,  school  principals,  clergymen  and  city  officials,  of  a 
monthly  bulletin  containing  special  articles  on  public  health 
subjects,  staff  news  for  the  information  of  employes  of  the  depart- 
ment of  health,  the  Otismlle  Ray  for  the  information  of  the 
patients  at  the  municipal  sanatorium,  reprints  and  monographs 
descriptive  of  the  departmental  activities,  circulars  of  informa- 
tion and  placards;  organization  of  educational  lectures  on  health 
topics  for  employes  of  the  department  of  health  and  for  high 
schools,  colleges,  clubs,  civic  organizations  and  labor  unions; 
preparation  and  display  of  exhibits  dealing  with  the  work  of  the 
department.  Such  exhibits  shown  in  schools,  settlement  houses, 
clinics  and  vacant  stores;  preparation  and  exhibition  of  films 
devoted  to  public  health  topics,  the  holding  of  free  moving- 
picture  exhibitions  in  parks,  recreation  centers  and  play  grounds; 
co-operation  with  other  city  departments  and  organizations  inter- 
ested in  public  health  work  and  providing  these  with  material 
suitable  for  educating  the  public  in  health  matters. 

With  the  co-operation  of  the  honorary  medical  staff  of  Willard 


24  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

Parker  Hospital  and  of  the  bureau  of  laboratories,  systematic 
instruction  in  the  diagnosis  and  treatment  of  contagious  diseases 
is  now  offered  by  the  department  to  medical  graduates.  For  the 
first  series  of  lectures  and  demonstrations,  more  than  sixty 
physicians  were  enrolled. 

In  order  to  safeguard  and  improve  the  health  of  the  employes 
of  the  department,  the  department  has  undertaken  to  make  a 
thorough  physical  examination  of  ail  its  employes.  Originally 
regarded  with  suspicion,  these  examinations  are  now  eagerly 
sought  by  all  classes  of  employes.  During  the  year  1,237  persons, 
437  men  and  800  women,  were  examined.  The  results  have  been 
invaluable;  cases  of  unsuspected  disease  have  been  discovered, 
and  treatment  and  preventive  measures  have  been  inaugurated. 
Cases  of  absence  on  account  of  illness  are  investigated,  emer- 
gency treatment  to  employes  taken  ill  while  on  duty  is  administered 
and  constant  supervision  is  exercised  over  the  health  of  the  em- 
ployes. The  adoption  of  the  plan  in  all  municipal  departments  is 
urged. 

An  important  new  educational  activity  is  the  work  which  the 
department  has  begun  in  relation  to  industrial  hygiene.  Edu- 
cation in  matters  of  industrial  hygiene  has  hitherto  been  left 
entirely  to  private  effort.  From  time  to  time,  legislation  to  pro- 
mote occupational  hygiene  has  been  prompted  by  private  societies. 
This  year  the  department  of  health  of  the  city  of  New  York, 
for  the  first  time  in  its  history,  has  claimed  this  field  for  its  own. 
The  method  proposed,  however,  is  wholly  that  of  education.  No 
increase  in  the  department's  force  of  inspectors  is  contemplated. 

Wherever  the  rate  of  sickness  is  unduly  high  because  of  insani- 
tary conditions  of  employment,  there  the  department  is  ready 
to  enter.  In  the  first  instance,  it  asks  for  the  support  of  the 
individuals  affected  by  existing  sanitary  conditions,  making  its 
appeal  to  both  employes  and  employers.  In  a  bulletin  addressed 
to  numerous  trade  unions,  the  department  has  announced  its 
readiness  "to  undertake  a  sanitary  survey  of  any  industry,  trade 
or  group  of  manufacturing  establishments  in  the  city,  with  a 
view  to  appraising  existing  conditions,  and  in  order  to  show  to 
employes  and  employers  alike  what  can  be  accomplished  through 
a  system  of  voluntary  hygienic  and  sanitary  control."  Responses 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND  SANITATION  25 

have  been  received  from  a  number  of  trades  and  plans  are  now 
afoot  which  will  result  in  the  formulation  of  sanitary  industrial 
standards  and  in  measures  for  the  prevention  of  industrial  dis- 
eases. This  work  has  been  entrusted  to  a  new  division  organized 
within  the  bureau  of  preventable  diseases,  which  bears  the  title 
of  the  division  of  industrial  hygiene. 

The  department  advocates  the  development  of  a  system  of 
periodic  medical  inspection  of  workers  in  large  establishments, 
similar  to  the  system  of  medical  inspection  of  school  children, 
which  is  now  universally  recognized  as  an  indispensable  part  of 
an  effective  public  health  program.  Employers  and  workers  are 
urged  to  co-operate  with  the  department  in  the  establishment  of 
medical  inspection  systems  in  industries  in  which  such  inspection 
is  especially  important  from  the  standpoint  of  communicable 
disease. 

The  bureau  of  food  inspection  has  undertaken  a  systematic 
inspection  of  all  classes  of  establishments  in  this  city  (except 
those  under  federal  or  state  inspection)  where  food  is  manu- 
factured, prepared  or  sold.  The  effectiveness  of  the  work  of  the 
bureau  has  been  increased  by  the  adoption  of  a  plan  for  the  dis- 
trict assignment  of  inspectors;  duplication  and  overlapping  have 
thus  been  avoided. 

The  protection  of  the  city  through  the  pasteurization  of  the 
bulk  of  its  milk  supply  is  now  an  accomplished  fact.  No  raw 
milk  is  allowed  to  be  sold  except  that  which  is  obtained  from 
tuberculin-tested  cows. 

Prior  to  1914  the  department  systematically  avoided  the  inspec- 
tion of  dairy  farms  which  were  conducted  under  the  auspices  of 
the  milk  commissions  of  the  various  county  medical  societies. 
After  due  consideration  it  was  decided  that,  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  the  department  is  responsible  to  the  city  for  the  safety  of 
the  entire  milk  supply,  the  dairy  farms  of  the  milk  commissions 
were  logically  subject  to  the  system  of  examination  and  inspec- 
tion which  is  carried  on  by  the  department  elsewhere.  It  was 
ordered  that  these  dairies  should  be  inspected  and  their  products 
examined  periodically,  that  careful  records  should  be  kept,  and 
that  suitable  permits  should  be  issued.  This  action  has  met 
with  the  approval  of  the  milk  commissions,  whose  voluntary 


26  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK   CITY 

activities  have  not  been  diminished,  and  which  continue  to 
"certify"  milk  which  conforms  to  their  own  high  standard. 

In  view  of  the  many  new  activities  of  the  bureau  of  food 
inspection,  and  in  order  to  insure  uniformity  of  action  by  the 
various  inspectors  of  the  bureau,  arrangements  have  been  made 
for  bi-weekly  conferences  of  inspectors,  at  which  the  rules  and 
regulations  of  the  department  and  their  interpretation  and  appli- 
cation are  discussed. 

Early  in  the  year  an  advisory  council  was  organized,  con- 
sisting of  representatives  of  the  various  trades  that  regularly 
come  under  the  supervision  of  the  department,  and  including 
in  its  membership  as  well  persons  identified  in  some  way  with 
public  health  administration,  and  those  connected  with  institutions 
and  private  societies  whose  objects  are  akin  to  those  of  the  depart- 
ment of  health. 

The  advisory  council  is  divided  into  committees  corresponding 
to  the  several  bureaus  of  the  department.  It  has  rendered  valu- 
able assistance  to  the  department  throughout  the  year  in  the 
critical  study  of  established  procedures  and  in  the  consideration 
of  proposed  new  measures.  Its  most  important  services  were 
performed  in  connection  with  the  revision  of  the  sanitary  code. 

The  circulation  of  the  Weekly  Bulletin  of  the  department  has 
been  increased  from  two  thousand  to  fifteen  thousand  copies, 
making  it  possible  to  send  it  regularly  to  every  practising  physician 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  to  principals  of  public  and  parochial 
schools,  and  to  all  institutions  with  which  the  department  has 
official  relations.  The  physicians  and  institutions  have  responded 
by  a  more  willing  co-operation  due,  as  one  of  them  wrote,  to  their 
better  understanding  of  "what  the  department  is  doing  and  why 
it  is  doing  it." 

The  department  is  about  to  issue  the  first  number  of  a  new 
publication,  School  Health  News,  which  will  be  sent  monthly 
during  the  school  term  to  every  public  school  teacher  in  the 
city,  and  in  the  preparation  of  which  the  bureau  of  public  health 
education,  the  bureau  of  child  hygiene,  and  the  division  of  phys- 
ical training  of  the  department  of  education  will  collaborate. 

An  active  campaign  has  been  carried  on  against  physicians  and 
midwives  for  failure  to  file  certificates  of  birth.  A  special  investi- 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND  SANITATION  27 

gation  in  the  entire  city  and  covering  several  thousand  babies 
selected  at  random  showed  that  over  98%  of  all  births  had  been 
reported  according  to  law. 

A  central  delinquent  list  has  been  established  of  physicians  who 
have  failed  to  comply  with  regulations  of  the  department  of 
health.  The  department  regrets  the  necessity  for  this  list,  and 
hopes  to  see  it  reduced  to  a  minimum  this  year  and  ultimately  be 
abolished. 

In  addition  to  the  fifty-six  infants'  milk  stations  maintained 
by  the  department  of  health  throughout  the  year,  private  phil- 
anthropists donated  the  rent  and  equipment  of  seven  stations, 
for  which  the  bureau  of  child  hygiene  provided  doctors  and  nurses. 
Of  these  seven  stations,  one  is  in  The  Bronx,  one  in  Brooklyn, 
and  five  in  the  hitherto  neglected  borough  of  Queens.  Two  new 
department  stations  have  been  authorized,  making  a  total  of 
fifty-eight  to  be  hereafter  maintained  by  the  city. 

It  is  gratifying  to  report  that  there  was  a  marked  increase  in 
the  number  of  breast-fed  babies  in  attendance  at  the  milk  sta- 
tions, namely,  63%  in  1914  as  compared  to  55%  in  1913. 

The  experimental  prenatal  work  carried  on  by  the  bureau  of 
child  hygiene  reached  500  mothers,  among  whom  there  were  no 
maternal  deaths.  96%  of  the  babies  born  are  still  living.  The 
deaths  under  one  month  per  thousand  births  were  16,  as  com- 
pared with  37  for  the  city  as  a  whole. 

The  school  registration  in  the  elementary,  public,  parochial 
and  high  schools  of  the  city  has  reached  912,583.  To  look  after 
the  health  of  these  children,  there  i&  an  inspection  staff  under  the 
direction  of  this  department,  in  the  proportion  of  one  medical 
inspector  for  each  9,300  children,  and  one  nurse  for  each  4,700 
children.  A  sharp  watch  is  kept  on  contagious  diseases,  and  that 
this  has  been  effective  is  demonstrated  by  the  fact  that  during 
1914  it  was  unnecessary  to  close  any  school  building  in  the  city 
on  account  of  contagious  diseases. 

In  order  to  increase  the  efficiency  of  the  school  work  of  the 
department  without  materially  increasing  the  working  force, 
two  sets  of  experiments  were  started.  In  the  first  an  effort  is 
being  made  to  secure  the  use  of  teachers  as  the  first  diagnostic 
line;  in  other  words,  the  teachers  have  been  instructed  in  the 


28  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

methods  of  examination  for  minor  and  major  contagious  diseases 
as  well  as  in  the  detection  of  gross  physical  defects  of  vision  and 
hearing.  Children  who  are  selected  for  attention  are  referred 
immediately  to  the  nurse  or  the  school  inspector,  the  latter  making 
the  diagnosis  and  suggesting  the  appropriate  care. 

The  second  experiment  has  for  its  object  the  wider  use  of 
private  physicians,  without  expense  to  the  city,  in  the  work  of 
physical  examination. 

In  the  sanitary  bureau  an  effort  has  been  made  to  replace 
sporadic  inspections  based  upon  citizens'  complaints  by  system- 
atic inspection  work,  which  has  for  its  object  the  abatement 
of  nuisance  by  the  initiative  of  the  department  itself.  Accord- 
ingly a  house  and  block  survey  of  the  entire  city  is  now  in  progress. 
It  is  worthy  of  note  that  during  1914,  18,863  complaints  of  nui- 
sances were  lodged  by  inspectors  spontaneously,  as  against  32,571 
made  by  citizens.  A  continuance  of  the  present  plan  of  action 
should  result  in  a  steady  diminution  in  the  number  of  complaints 
of  a  legitimate  character  made  by  citizens. 

Nearly  6,000  inspections  of  lodging  houses  were  made  during 
the  year,  and  these  led  to  the  issuance  of  600  notices  to  abate 
nuisances.  An  effort  was  made  to  encourage  cleanliness  on  the 
part  of  lodgers.  At  the  municipal  lodging  house  a  daily  bath 
is  required.  In  other  lodging  houses,  having  14,223  lodgers,  it 
was  found  that  only  2,000  baths  were  taken  daily. 

Vigorous  efforts  were  made  in  theaters,  department  stores, 
public  institutions,  public  lavatories  and  wash  rooms  to  obtain 
compliance  with  the  ordinance  which  forbids  the  use  of  common 
drinking  cups  and  common  towels. 

The  prevalence  of  glanders  necessitated  an  order  for  the  aboli- 
tion of  common  horse  troughs  and  the  substitution  of  drinking 
fountains  having  a  system  of  water  supply  which  requires  the  use 
of  individual  pails.  The  board  of  aldermen  co-operated  in  this 
work. 

The  increased  pollution  of  river  and  harbor  waters  necessitated 
the  suppression  of  some  of  the  river  baths  as  a  measure  of  safety. 
To  replace  discontinued  river  baths,  the  municipality  is  urged  to 
hasten  the  construction  of  additional  interior  baths  and  pools. 

Periodic   inspection   of   roof   tanks   was   inaugurated   by   the 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND   SANITATION  29 

department  in  1914.  In  consequence  of  the  conditions  revealed 
in  the  course  of  4,000  inspections  of  these  tanks,  it  became  neces- 
sary to  issue  3,000  orders  requiring  compliance  with  existing 
regulations. 

Large  areas  of  salt  marsh  and  inland  swamps  in  the  greater 
city  have  been  filled,  drained  or  oiled.  Wherever  the  ownership 
of  property  could  be  determined,  suitable  orders  and  notices  to 
abate  mosquito-breeding  nuisances  were  issued. 

Following  the  receipt  of  a  letter  of  encouragement  and  approval 
from  the  mayor,  the  department  of  health,  which  had  publicly 
declared  that  overcrowded  street  cars  constituted  a  menace  to 
health  and  should  not  be  tolerated,  proceeded  to  issue  orders 
for  the  abatement  of  this  nuisance.  The  department's  novel 
campaign  in  this  field  followed  the  receipt  of  a  letter  from  the 
mayor  of  the  city,  who  wrote  as  follows: 

It  is  plain  that  the  accommodations  which  are  offered  to  passengers 
on  many  of  the  transit  lines  in  the  city  are  not  what  they  should  be- 

Section  1176  of  the  charter  reads  in  part  as  follows:  " Whenever  any 
business  pursuit  shall,  in  the  opinion  of  the  board  of  health,  be  in  a  con- 
dition or  in  effect  dangerous  to  life  or  health,  said  board  may  enter  in 
its  records  the  same  as  a  nuisance,  and  order  the  same  to  be  removed, 
abated,  suspended  or  improved." 

Cannot  the  department  of  health,  acting  in  accordance  with  this  pro- 
vision of  the  charter,  take  steps  to  abate  the  nuisance  of  overcrowding? 
There  should  be  better  conditions  on  all  of  the  lines  during  non-rush 
hours,  and  no  company  should  be  excused  from  the  duty  of  using,  at 
any  time,  as  many  cars  as  it  may  be  safe  and  possible  to  operate  up  to 
the  limit  of  the  number  required  to  safeguard  the  health  of  its  passengers. 

You  have  shown  that  overcrowding  is  a  menace  to  health,  and  the 
courts  will  undoubtedly  sustain  you  in  a  vigorous  attempt  to  obtain 
relief  from  the  present  notorious  and  intolerable  conditions  which  offend 
not  only  against  health  but  against  decency. 

On  the  receipt  of  this  communication,  the  activites  of  the 
board  of  health  began.  The  succeeding  events  are  here  stated 
in  chronological  order. 

The  board  of  health  declared  overcrowded  cars  on  the  Eighty- 
sixth  street  line  (New  York  Railways  Company)  and  the  Fifty- 


30  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

ninth  street  line  (Third  Avenue  Railroad  Company),  to  be  a 
public  nuisance,  and  ordered  that  the  carrying  of  passengers  on 
these  lines  be  "so  regulated  that  the  total  number  of  passengers 
of  any  car,  at  any  time,  shall  not  exceed  one  and  one-half  times 
the  seating  capacity  of  the  car." 

The  board  of  health  ordered  that  overcrowding  shall  cease  on 
the  Graham  avenue  line  of  the  Brooklyn  Heights  Railroad 
Company. 

The  Third  Avenue  Railroad  Company  agreed  to  supply  addi- 
tional cars  on  the  Fifty-ninth  street  line,  and  to  comply  with  the 
order  of  the  board  of  health. 

The  board  of  health,  after  hearing  counsel  for  the  New  York 
Railways  Company  and  the  Brooklyn  Heights  Railroad  Com- 
pany, reaffirmed  its  orders  on  those  companies. 

The  board  of  health  ordered  the  Staten  Island  Railway  to  cease 
overcrowding  on  its  "Richmond  Line." 

The  Brooklyn  Heights  Railroad  Company,  through  its  counsel, 
stated  that  the  order  of  the  board  of  health  would  be  complied 
with,  and  that  additional  cars  had  been  placed  in  service  on 
Graham  avenue. 

Mr.  Theodore  P.  Shonts,  President  of  the  New  York  Railways 
Company,  wrote  that  the  company  would  observe  the  order 
affecting  the  Eighty -sixth  street  line. 

The  board  of  health  ordered  overcrowding  to  cease  on  the 
Flatbush-Seventh  avenue  and  the  Third  avenue  surface  lines  in 
Brooklyn,  owned  respectively  by  the  Nassau  Electric  Railway 
Company  and  the  Brooklyn  Heights  Railway  Company,  and 
operated  by  the  Brooklyn  Rapid  Transit  Company. 

The  Nassau  Electric  Railway  Company  and  the  Brooklyn 
Heights  Railway  Company  notified  the  board  of  health  of  their 
intention  to  comply  with  the  orders  which  respectively  affected 
them. 

The  board  of  health  ordered  that  overcrowding  cease  on  the 
Sixth  and  Eighth  avenue  surface  lines  in  Manhattan.  The 
New  York  Railways  Company  agreed  to  comply. 

The  Staten  Island  Company,  which  was  ordered  to  cease  over- 
crowding on  one  of  its  lines,  promised  voluntarily  to  adopt  the 
health  board  standard  for  all  of  its  lines. 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND  SANITATION  31 

The  board  of  health  ordered  the  cessation  of  overcrowding  on 
the  Lexington  avenue  surface  line. 

A  series  of  convictions  was  obtained  in  the  several  boroughs 
for  violation  of  the  section  of  the  sanitary  code  relating  to  smoke 
nuisance.  One  case  against  the  New  York,  New  Haven  and 
Hartford  Railroad'  resulted  in  a  fine  of  $500 ;  in  a  second  case 
against  the  same  company  sentence  was  suspended.  In  Brooklyn, 
out  of  13  cases  taken  to  court,  9  were  fined;  in  3  cases,  sentence 
was  suspended ;  and  in  1  case,  the  offender  was  imprisoned  in  jail 
for  three  days.  Like  results  were  obtained  in  the  other  boroughs. 

The  department  was  fortunate  enough  to  obtain  the  sustained 
co-operation  of  the  police  department  in  the  enforcement  of 
certain  sections  of  the  sanitary  code.  The  police  officers  assist 
either  by  making  arrests  for  obvious  violations  or  by  reporting 
such  violations  to  this  department ;  each  patrolman  on  his  regular 
"beat"  acts  as  an  auxiliary  health  officer.  Valuable  aid  has 
thus  been  rendered. 

The  annual  clean-up  campaign  was  conducted  in  record- 
breaking  time.  It  commenced  at  a  conference  held  at  the  depart- 
ment of  health  on  April  29.  On  May  1,  $15,000  was  set  aside  for 
special  clean-up  purposes  for  the  use  of  the  department  of  street 
cleaning.  The  week  of  May  11  to  17  was  devoted  to  an  energetic 
campaign  of  publicity,  and  the  actual  removal  of  accumulated 
rubbish  was  accomplished  from  May  18  to  May  23. 

Altogether  1,750,000  circulars  of  information  were  distributed 
throughout  the  boroughs  of  Manhattan,  The  Bronx  and  Brooklyn. 
Official  notices  of  the  date  of  removal  of  rubbish,  1,500, COO  in 
number,  were  distributed  through  the  police  department  two 
days  before  the  actual  clean-up  began. 

A  large  bill-posting  firm  posted  notices  calling  attention  to 
clean-up  week;  these  were  placed  on  all  the  wagons  of  the  street 
cleaning  department.  Eight  hundred  moving-picture  theaters  in 
the  city  displayed  special  slides  supplied  by  the  department  of 
health,  announcing  "Clean-Up  Week,"  and  the  newspapers  ren- 
dered valuable  assistance. 

The  following  figures  represent  the  excess  loads  of  dirt  and 
rubbish  collected  during  clean-up  week,  as  reported  by  the  com- 
missioner of  the  department  of  street  cleaning: 


32                 THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW  YORK   CITY 

Manhattan  The  Bronx  Brooklyn  Total 

May  18 467  65  567  1,099 

May  19 451  74  805  1,330 

May  20 362  83  858  1,303 

May  21 359  80  670  1,109 

May  22 194  68  690  952 

May  23 28  92>^  301  421 


Total 1,861  462>^  3,891  6,214^ 

Early  in  the  year  the  board  of  estimate  and  apportionment 
authorized  the  construction  of  the  first  unit  of  a  new  hospital  for 
contagious  diseases  in  the  borough  of  Queens.  The  contract 
was  promptly  signed  and  the  building  is  nearing  completion. 
The  site  in  use  for  this  purpose  was  purchased  by  the  city  more 
than  eleven  years  ago. 

An  important  step  forward  was  made  when  the  board  of  esti- 
mate and  apportionment  and  the  board  of  aldermen  sanctioned 
the  purchase  of  the  Seton  Falls  site  in  The  Bronx,  for  the  purpose 
of  hospital  development.  There  is  available  for  the  construction 
of  this  hospital  the  sum  of  $125,000.  Request  has  been  made 
for  a  sufficient  sum,  in  addition,  to  render  possible  the  construc- 
tion in  the  first  instance  of  a  group  of  three  buildings,  the  com- 
pletion of  which  will  enable  the  department  to  discontinue  the 
transfer  of  sick  children  to  North  Brother  Island — a  practise 
which  has  been  much  criticized. 

The  bulk  of  the  hospital  population  at  Riverside  Hospital, 
North  Brother  Island,  consists,  at  the  present  time,  of  adults 
affected  with  tuberculosis.  There  is  under  construction  on  the 
island  a  pavilion  for  the  care  of  cases  of  venereal  diseases.  The 
plan  of  the  department  is  to  devote  this  island  in  the  future 
wholly  to  the  care  of  adults  suffering  from  tuberculosis  and 
venereal  diseases. 

During  the  year  a  system  of  follow-up  work  to  ascertain  the 
after  effects  of  contagious  diseases  upon  patients  discharged  from 
the  hospitals  of  the  department  was  inaugurated. 

A  special  clinic  for  the  intensive  study  of  the  cause  and  treat- 
ment of  whooping  cough  has  been  established  at  the  corner  of 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND  SANITATION  33 

Avenue  C  and  Sixteenth  street,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Willard 
Parker  Hospital.  In  the  conduct  of  this  clinic  the  bureau  of 
hospitals  and  the  bureau  of  laboratories  have  collaborated.  Early 
reports  indicate  that  some  progress  has  been  made  in  the  treat- 
ment of  this  disease. 

A  model  form  of  medical  organization,  designed  to  meet  the 
present  and  future  needs  of  the  department  in  its  hospitals  for 
contagious  diseases,  was  adopted  during  the  year.  Daily  atten- 
dance, by  visiting  physicians,  in  all  the  wards  of  the  hospitals, 
is  now  the  rule. 

A  society  for  clinical  study  has  been  organized  in  each  of  the 
hospitals  of  the  department.  Each  member  of  the  staff  is 
expected  to  devote  himself,  during  his  spare  hours,  to  the  pursuit 
of  some  special  topic  or  branch  of  medicine,  and  is  granted  leave 
of  absence  from  the  hospital  during  stated  hours  each  week  for 
the  practical  pursuit  of  the  special  subject  assigned  to  him.  A 
higher  grade  of  medical  service  is  expected  to  be  the  result  of  this 
post-graduate  work. 

With  the  object  of  affording  stimulation  to  the  nursing  staffs  of 
the  hospitals,  a  committee  has  been  formed  to  institute  lectures, 
courses  of  study,  forms  of  entertainment  and  tours  of  observation 
for  the  nurses  employed  in  the  several  hospitals  of  the  department. 

The  superintendent  of  hospitals  now  reports,  month  by  month, 
the  number  of  contagious  disease  infections  occurring  among  the 
physicians,  visiting  physicians,  resident  physicians,  nurses  and 
other  hospital  employes  of  the  department,  presumably  from 
contact  with  hospital  cases.  Based  upon  these  reports,  investiga- 
tions have  been  made  for  the  purpose  of  lessening  the  dangers  of 
contact  wherever  possible. 

The  State  Charities  Aid  Association  was  invited  and  accepted 
the  invitation  to  make  periodic  inspections  of  the  hospitals  of  the 
department.  This  work  has  been  done  by  members  of  the  asso- 
ciation's New  York  city  visiting  committee. 

A  committee  was  appointed  to  prepare  a  general  plan  for  the 
layout  of  the  Otisville  sanatorium,  showing  the  grouping  of 
future  buildings,  service  roads,  paths  and  other  approaches, 
disposition  of  lawns,  terraces,  etc.,  and  the  generall  ocation  of 
plantations.  The  plan  which  has  been  adopted  is  sufficiently 


34  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

flexible  to  permit  of  minor  changes  from  time  to  time  as  new 
conditions  arise,  but  is  definite  enough  to  serve  as  a  practical 
guide  in  the  location  of  future  buildings. 

At  present  the  activities  of  the  department  are  functionally 
classified  and  are  controlled  by  bureau  chiefs.  The  field  workers 
of  the  department  are  directed  from  headquarters.  To  this 
system,  advantageous  as  it  is  in  many  ways,  there  are  three 
principal  objections: 

1.  The  director  of  a  bureau  is  too  far  removed  from  those  who 
do  the  field  work  of  the  bureau. 

2.  Where  there  is  a  high  degree  of  differentiation  of  function, 
the  individual  worker  ceases  to  see  things  in  their  true  proportion, 
and  fails  to  grasp  or  apply  the  broad  principles  by  which  the 
department  is  governed.     Mental  and  professional  development 
are  inhibited  by  the  repetition  of  detail  work  of  a  monotonous 
character. 

3.  Various  bureaus  send  their  representatives  into  the  same 
districts,  often  into  the  same  houses,  which  results  in  undue 
expenditure  of  time  and  energy  and  an  annoyance  to  the  individ- 
ual citizen. 

Can  these  disadvantages  be  overcome?  How  far  can  the  work 
of  the  department  be  improved  by  the  substitution  of  a  system  of 
local  or  district  administration  for  the  present  purely  functional 
administration?  Can  field  workers  be  trained  to  perform,  and 
can  they  actually  perform  in  a  satisfactory  manner,  a  variety  of 
functions  ? 

In  order  to  answer  these  questions  intelligently,  an  experi- 
mental health  district  has  been  established,  where  all  the  activities 
of  the  department  are  locally  directed  by  a  single  district  chief, 
who  represents  all  of  the  bureaus  which  are  engaged  in  field  work. 
That  there  is  much  promise  in  this  experiment  is  shown  by  the 
preliminary  reports.  For  example,  during  the  last  week  of  the 
year,  seven  agents  of  the  department  •  made  177  visits  in  99 
houses. 

In  61  houses,  1  health  function  was  served. 

In  18  houses,  2  health  functions  were  served. 

In  8  houses,  3  health  functions  were  served. 

In  7  houses,  4  health  functions  were  served. 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND  SANITATION  35 

In  1  house,  5  health  functions  were  served. 

In  4  houses,  6  health  functions  were  served. 

This  study  will  be  continued  during  the  coming  year,  and  with 
the  co-operation  of  heads  of  other  departments,  may  even  be 
carried  beyond  the  strict  limits  of  our  work,  so  as  to  include  in 
its  operation  the  local  administration  of  all  of  the  health  and 
related  activities  of  the  municipality  within  the  experimental 
district. 

Investigation  having  shown  that  fumigation  was  being  exten- 
sively practised  by  the  department  without  sufficient  evidence  to 
warrant  the  practise,  arrangements  have  been  made  to  reduce 
the  department's  fumigation  activities  to  a  minimum.  The 
present  program  is  discussed  fully  in  the  report  of  the  bureau  of 
infectious  diseases. 

The  number  of  cases  of  venereal  disease  reported  in  1914  was 
approximately  double  that  reported  in  the  previous  year;  this 
shows  an  increased  willingness  on  the  part  of  institutions  and 
physicians  to  co-operate  with  the  department  in  its  efforts  to 
gather  complete  statistics  of  these  diseases. 

The  handbook  of  the  bureau  of  infectious  diseases  was  entirely 
rewritten.  This  manual  for  employes  serves  also  as  a  reference 
book  for  those  who  desire  to  make  an  intimate  study  of  the  func- 
tions of  the  bureau  of  infectious  diseases. 

Numerous  monographs  and  circulars  in  regard  to  contagious 
diseases  were  issued  during  the  year. 

An  investigation  was  made  to  determine  whether  patients  enter- 
ing the  hospitals  of  the  department  could  pay  for  the  care  which 
they  receive.  It  was  found  that  very  few  could  do  so. 

New  procedures  for  home  supervision  of  cases  of  whooping  cough 
reported  by  dispensaries  and  institutions  were  adopted  in  August. 

A  systematic  investigation  by  field  nurses  is  being  made  of  all 
cases  discharged  from  the-  state  sanatorium  at  Raybrook  and 
from  the  department  of  health  sanatorium  at  Otisville,  the  object 
being  to  ascertain  the  final  results  of  treatment,  its  social  as  well 
as  its  personal  value. 

The  anti-rabic  clinics  of  the  department  were  reorganized  and 
methods  made  uniform  in  all  boroughs.  A  new  clinic  was  opened 
at  29  Third  avenue,  Brooklyn. 


36  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

Late  in  the  year  foot  and  mouth  disease  appeared  in  Long 
Island  and  all  the  cattle  in  a  number  of  stables  in  the  borough  of 
Queens  were  destroyed  by  state  inspectors.  Two  suspected  cases 
of  human  foot  and  mouth  disease  were  observed.  A  general 
order  was  issued  for  the  pasteurization  of  all  milk  during  the 
continuance  of  the  epidemic. 

The  special  fund  from  the  bureau  of  social  research  which  has 
hitherto  been  used  for  the  support  .of  diagnostic  laboratory  work 
in  venereal  diseases  was  exhausted  at  the  end  of  1914.  Provision 
having  been  made  in  the  budget  for  1915,  this  work  is  now  carried 
on  as  a  municipal  activity. 

In  co-operation  with  the  bureau  of  licenses,  a  clinic  for  the 
examination  of  applicants  for  peddlers'  licenses  was  established  at 
49  Lafayette  street,  where  applicants  undergo  examinations  for 
tuberculosis  and  other  communicable  diseases. 

A  special  inspection  of  each  general  and  special  hospital,  home 
for  incurables,  orphan  asylum,  dispensary  and  similar  institution 
in  the  city,  was  undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  the 
manner  in 'which  these  institutions  are  complying  with  the  sani- 
tary code,  which  requires  that  in  every  public  hospital  and 
dispensary  in  the  city  of  New  York  there  shall  be  provided  and 
maintained  a  suitable  room  or  rooms  for  the  temporary  isolation 
of  persons  suffering  from  infectious  diseases.  On  the  basis  of  this 
study,  suitable  regulations  were  adopted  for  the  care  of  contagious 
diseases  in  all  public  and  semi-public  institutions  in  the  city. 

The  department  has  discontinued  the  practise  of  transferring 
patients  ill  with  contagious  diseases  from  out-of-town  institutions 
to  the  city,  on  the  principle  that  such  institutions,  in  justice  to 
their  inmates,  should  be  provided  with  suitable  facilities  for  the 
isolation  of  contagious  diseases. 

The  state  law  makes  compulsory  the  vaccination  of  children 
attending  public  schools.  This  law  does  not  apply  to  the  paro- 
chial schools,  which  are  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Catholic 
school  board;  the  vaccination  of  the  children  attending  parochial 
schools  has  hitherto  been  neglected.  The  great  danger  involved 
in  this  neglect  was  pointed  out  to  the  officials  of  the  Catholic 
school  board,  who  promptly  and  cordially  offered  to  co-operate 
with  the  department.  During  the  summer,  therefore,  69,354 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND  SANITATION  37 

children  attending  the  parochial  schools  in  the  five  boroughs  were 
vaccinated  against  smallpox. 

Managers  of  lodging  houses  are  now  requested  to  notify  this 
department  of  the  removal  of  all  persons  ill  with  tuberculosis. 
Lodging-house  cases  furnish  one  of  the  most  difficult  problems  in 
the  tuberculosis  work  of  the  department.  This  new  procedure 
will  make  it  possible  to  keep  them  under  closer  observation. 

An  examination  of  attendants  and  student  helpers  engaged  in 
the  public  school  lunch  service  was  made,  with  especial  reference 
to  tuberculosis,  syphilis,  diphtheria,  typhoid  and  other  infectious 
diseases. 

From  the  surplus  product  of  the  laboratory,  tetanus  antitoxin 
sufficient  to  immunize  200,000  wounded  men  was  sent  abroad  for 
distribution  among  nearly  all  of  the  armies  engaged  in  the  war. 
For  all  of  this  supply  payment  is  to  be  made  to  the  city  at  cost. 

The  amount  of  smallpox  vaccine  prepared  and  distributed  dur- 
ing 1914  showed  a  large  increase  over  that  of  previous  years,  due 
to  the  active  campaign  in  favor  of  general  vaccination,  carried  on 
by  both  the  New  York  city  and  state  departments  of  health. 

The  report  on  meningitis  shows  that  202  cases  were  treated 
during  the  year  1914  as  against  131  during  the  previous  year;  170 
intraspinal  injections  of  anti-meningitis  serum  were  performed. 

Pasteur  anti-rabic  treatment  was  given  to  852  patients  during 
1914  as  against  975  during  the  previous  year.  There  were  three 
human  deaths  from  rabies  during  the  year.  During  the  last  six 
months  of  the  year,  42  persons  who  had  been  bitten  by  cats 
received  Pasteur  treatment.  Of  this  number  33  patients  were 
bitten  by  12  cats  that  were  proved  to  be  rabid  by  a  microscopical 
examination  of  their  brains.  This  indicates  clearly  that  stray 
cats,  as  well  as  stray  dogs,  should  be  captured  and  destroyed. 

The  laboratory  work  of  the  department  has  hitherto  been 
under  divided  control.  The  research  laboratories,  so-called,  were 
in  charge  of  the  director  of  laboratories,  while  the  diagnostic 
laboratories  were  under  the  supervision  of  the  director  of  the 
bureau  of  infectious  diseases.  At  the  close  of  the  year  the  labora- 
tories were  consolidated,  and  the  entire  laboratory  organization 
placed  in  charge  of  the  director  of  laboratories.  Certain  econ- 
omies will  result  from  this  consolidation. 


38  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

At  the  request  of  the  commissioner  of  health,  critical  studies 
of  various  phases  of  the  technical  work  of  the  bureau  of  labora- 
tories were  undertaken  independently  by  three  different  mem- 
bers of  the  advisory  council.  All  pronounced  the  work  performed 
to  be  of  a  very  high  quality.  Some  valuable  suggestions  were 
adopted. 

Arrangements  were  made  whereby  the  number  of  milk  samples 
examined  bacteriologically  was  more  than  doubled.  This  was 
accomplished  without  any  increase  in  the  force  of  the  bacterio- 
logical laboratory. 

For  years  part  of  the  bacteriological  work  of  the  New  York 
county  milk  commission  was  carried  on  in  the  laboratories  of 
the  department.  The  corporation  counsel,  who  was  consulted 
in  regard  to  the  legality  of  this  arrangement,  expressed  the  fol- 
lowing opinion: 

The  provisions  of  the  law  do  not  require  the  city  of  New  York  to  bear 
any  part  of  the  expenses  connected  with  the  activities  of  the  milk  com- 
mission, or,  in  strictness,  warrant  the  arrangement  whereby  the  milk 
commission  makes  use  of  the  employes,  supplies  and  apparatus  of  the 
department  of  health. 

In  view  of  this  decision,  an  amicable  arrangement  with  the  milk 
commission  was  made  for  the  withdrawal  of  its  work  from  the 
laboratories  of  the  department. 

Through  the  assignment  of  a  representative  of  the  commis- 
sioners of  accounts  to  this  department,  by  request,  several  fruit- 
ful investigations  were  made,  among  which  are  the  following: 

(a)  It  was  discovered  that  in  a  number  of  instances  physicians 
had  obtained  laboratory  products  from  the  department  ostensibly 
for  use  among  the  poor,  but  that  such  products  had  not  been 
used  for  the  purpose  indicated.  The  department  was  advised 
that  the  evidence  obtained  would  not  warrant  legal  action. 
Twenty  physicians,  were,  however,  sharply  warned. 

Incidentally  this  investigation  showed  that  diphtheria  anti- 
toxin had  been  used  in  many  cases  which  had  not  been  reported 
to  the  department  as  cases  of  diphtheria.  In  future,  systematic 
comparison  will  be  made  between  antitoxin  receipt  stubs  and 
the  records  of  the  bureau  of  infectious  diseases,  in  order  to  insure 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND  SANITATION  39 

promptness  and  accuracy  on  the  part  of  the  medical  profession 
in  the  reporting  of  diphtheria. 

(b)  A  study  was  made  of  the  telephone  requirements  in  the 
various  offices  of  the  department  in  the  boroughs  of  Manhattan 
and  The  Bronx.     Some  saving  has  resulted. 

(c)  It  was  discovered  that  condemned  food  supplies  were  being 
surreptitiously  removed  from  the  offal  dock.     The  police  depart- 
ment was  asked  to  co-operate  with  this  department  in  its  efforts 
to  prevent  this  practise. 

(d)  Comparative  studies  were  made  of  the  work  performed  by 
physicians,  nurses,  nurses'  assistants  and  cleaners  in  a  number 
of  milk  stations. 

(e)  The  use  of  motor  and  horse-drawn  vehicles  in  the  depart- 
ment was  studied  and  facts  were  ascertained  which  will  be  of 
assistance  to  the  department. 

(f)  A  report  was  made  upon  the  work  of  the  supervisor  of 
buildings  and  grounds. 

(g)  A  study  was  made  of  the  work  of  all  of  the  employes 
attached  to  The  Bronx  borough  office.      In  one  bureau  a  top- 
heavy  organization  was  revealed;   suitable  changes  followed. 

At  the  request  of  the  commissioner  of  health,  a  study  of  the 
accounting  methods  and  care  of  valuable  stock  at  the  branch 
laboratory  at  Otisville  was  made  by  the  office  of  the  commis- 
sioners of  accounts.  Based  upon  this  investigation  were  recom- 
mendations in  relation  to  accounting  methods  which  were  adopted. 

In  view  of  the  frequency  of  requests  for  the  free  distribution 
of  laboratory  products  to  municipalities  and  hospitals  outside 
of  the  city  of  New  York  the  department  has  adopted  the  policy 
of  using  "all  its  resources  for  the  protection  of  the  health  of  the 
city,"  at  the  same  time  declaring  its  willingness  "to  co-operate 
with  other  municipalities  and  states  in  special  emergencies." 
It  has  been  ordered  also  that  "services  performed  for  other 
communities  shall  be  duly  compensated." 

The  organization  of  a  stenographic  division  at  headquarters 
into  which  have  been  gathered  the  stenographers  and  typists, 
heretofore  scattered  throughout  the  various  bureau  offices,  is 
one  of  the  most  notable  of  a  series  of  measures  inaugurated  dur- 
ing the  year  to  increase  the  efficiency  of  the  department. 


40  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

Many  of  the  professional  workers  of  the  department  have  long 
been  employed  on  a  part-time  basis.  An  official  definition  of 
part-time  service,  applicable  throughout  the  department,  was, 
however,  lacking.  Such  a  definition  has  now  been  promulgated. 

During  the  year  a  careful  study  was  made  of  the  sanitary  code, 
of  the  regulations  of  the  department,  and  of  all  forms  of  board 
orders  which  prescribe  or  require  any  kind  of  alteration  to  build- 
ings, with  a  view  to  establishing  perfect  consistency  between 
the  regulations  of  the  board  of  health  and  those  of  other  city 
and  state  departments.  As  a  result  of  this  study  conflict  of 
orders,  confusion,  and  unnecessary  expense  to  citizens  will  be 
avoided. 

An  order  was  issued  forbidding  employes  of  the  department 
to  enter  into  or  to  maintain  business  relations  with,  or  to  accept 
any  fee  for  the  performance  of  professional  services  for  any  milk 
or  other  firm  whose  activities  are  under  the  supervision  of  the 
department  of  health. 

The  chief  of  the  division  of  research  and  efficiency  in  the 
bureau  of  child  hygiene  was  detached  from  that  bureau  and 
assigned  to  the  office  of  the  commissioner,  where  his  services 
will  be  utilized  for  the  benefit  of  the  department  as  a  whole. 

The  high  per  capita  cost  of  operating  the  department  clinics 
for-  school  children  was  materially  reduced  by  arranging  for  sur- 
gical operations  in  these  clinics  every  week  day  i;n  place  of  every 
other  day. 

In  every  possible  way  efforts  have  been  made  to  lighten  the 
burdens  of  the  department  and  incidentally  of  the  taxpayers, 
by  transferring  to  private  physicians  clinical  and  other  functions 
which  such  physicians  are  able  to  perform  without  danger  to  the 
public  health.  A  notable  instance  of  the  application  of  this  new 
policy  is  acceptance  on  a  child's  admission  to  school  of  the  certi- 
ficate of  a  private  physician  in  lieu  of  examination  by  the  depart- 
ment's own  medical  inspectors. 

Throughout  the  year  studies  of  the  various  activities  of  the 
department  were  made,  with  a  view  to  the  more  effective  utiliza- 
tion of  available  means  and  forces.  In  consequence  of  these 
studies,  a  number  of  unproductive  activities  were  discontinued. 
By  means  of  office  consolidation  in  the  Richmond  borough  office, 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND   SANITATION  41 

several  valuable  employes,  who,  owing  to  the  limited  amount  of 
work  to  be  done  in  the  Richmond  borough  office,  were  little  more 
than  supernumeraries  there,  were  transferred  to  branches  of  the 
service  where  their  help  was  badly  needed.  A  similar  study  of 
the  work  of  the  Queens  borough  office  has  since  been  undertaken. 

The  departmental  board  of  promotions,  which  previously  con- 
sisted of  three  individuals,  was  reorganized  early  in  the  year,  so 
as  to  include  as  members  of  the  board  all  bureau  chiefs. 

A  uniform  method  of  dealing  with  requests  for  ' '  leave  of  absence 
with  pay"  was  inaugurated. 

In  order  to  show  each  chief  of  bureau  precisely  where  his 
bureau  stands  in  the  matter  of  supplies,  and  whether  in  a  given 
month  goods  have  been  consumed  in  excess  of  the  available 
appropriations  for  any  particular  purpose,  a  form  was  inaugurated 
for  monthly  distribution  showing  the  following  facts: 

1.  Amount  of  annual  appropriation  for  supplies  (each  appro- 
priation item  to  be  separately  stated). 

2.  Amount  of  monthly  appropriation  calculated  as  one-twelfth 
of  annual  appropriation. 

3.  Amount  of  requisitions,  item  by  item,  during  the  month 
covered  by  the  report. 

4.  Amount,  available  for  the  period  since  the  beginning  of  the 
fiscal  year  (on  a  pro-rata  basis). 

5.  Amount  actually  used  since  the  beginning  of  the  fiscal  year. 
Inquiry  having  indicated  that  in  some  of  the  divisions  of  the 

department  important  instructions  to  groups  of  workers  had 
been  given  orally,  in  so  informal  a  manner  that  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  prove  conclusively  when  such  instructions  were  issued, 
to  whom  issued  and  with  what  emphasis,  heads  of  bureaus  were 
instructed  that  all  orders  which  are  equivalent  to  rules  and  which 
affect  groups  of  workers  should  invariably  be  reduced  to  writing 
and  formally  promulgated. 

Statements  have  been  completed  showing  the  unit  cost  of 
functions  and  activities  of  the  department;  these  figures  will 
prove  of  value  to  the  department.  Departments  of  health  in 
other  cities  will  be  urged  to  follow  suit,  and  valuable  and  instruc- 
tive comparative  data  will,  it  is  hoped,  thus  be  obtained. 

Many  inspectors  and  other  field  workers  of  the  department 


42 


GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 


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PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND   SANITATION  43 

were  without  comprehensive  printed  codes  of  instructions.  In- 
spectors were  expected  to  carry  in  their  minds  many  of  the 
instructions  given  them.  Each  bureau  chief  was  therefore 
directed  to  formulate  a  code  of  instructions  applicable  to  the 
field  workers  of  his  particular  bureau. 

In  order  to  meet  the  frequent  requests  from  department 
employes  for  permission  to  attend  conventions  and  conferences 
in  this  city  and  elsewhere  in  the  department's  time  and  at  the 
expense  of  the  department,  a  committee  was  appointed  to  pre- 
pare an  official  list  of  annual  conventions  and  meetings  representa- 
tion at  which  is  clearly  desirable  in  the  interest  of  the  department. 

A  cknowledgments 

Many  of  the  procedures  of  the  department  this  year  have 
been  new.  In  all  of  the  bureaus  the  pace  has  been  quickened. 
A  serious  effort  has  been  made  to  hold  each  employe  of  the 
department  up  to  a  high  standard  of  personal  achievement. 
Officers  and  employes  have  been  asked  to  make  sacrifices  to 
which  they  have  not  been  accustomed.  In  some  instances  salaries 
have  been  reduced:  and  except  in  a  few  cases,  it  has  been  impos- 
sible, owing  to  the  financial  stringency,  to  reward  zealous  and 
efficient  workers  according  to  their  merit.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, eagerness  to  serve  the  department  could  not  reasonably 
have  been  anticipated.  Nevertheless,  there  has  been  manifested 
throughout  the  department  a  steadfast  devotion  to  duty,  and 
in  many  instances  even  a  high  degree  of  enthusiasm. 

That  the  health  department  of  the  city  of  New  York  is  per- 
mitted by  the  mayor  to  conduct  its  affairs  wholly  untrammelled 
by  interests  foreign  to  its  fundamental  purpose  of  conserving 
life  and  health,  must  serve  as  a  lesson  to  every  city  where  health 
administration  fails  because  less  favorable  conditions  prevail. 


DISCUSSION   OF   PUBLIC   HEALTH   AND   SANITATION 

THE  TENEMENT  HOUSE   DEPARTMENT 

JOHN  J.  MURPHY 
Commissioner  of  the  Tenement  House  Department 

AiOUT  fifteen  years  ago  it  was  recognized  that  the  multiple  dwell- 
ing problem  in  the  city  of  New  York  was  growing  to  such  pro- 
portions as  to  need  particular  treatment.  From  1867,  when  the 
first  tenement  house  laws  were  placed  on  the  statute  books,  up  to  1900, 
the  enforcement  of  such  laws  was  divided  among  a  number  of  city  depart- 
ments. The  department  of  health  had  many  of  them,  the  bureau  of 
buildings  some,  the  fire  department  some,  the  police  department  some, 
and  as  usually  happens  when  there  is  a  division  of  responsibility,  it  was 
found  that  there  was  a  waste  of  effort  and  considerable  non-enforcement 
of  the  law.  Accordingly,  the  tenement  house  commission  concluded 
that  the  best  way  to  solve  the  problem  was  by  creating  a  special  depart- 
ment into  whose  care  should  be  committed  practically  the  entire  regula- 
tion of  multiple  dwellings.  If  you  want  to  understand  the  precise  posi- 
tion which  the  tenement  house  department  occupies  in  the  municipal 
scheme,  you  must  get  the  legal  definition  of  a  tenement  house  and  not 
the  colloquial  use  of  the  term.  A  tenement  house  in  New  York  is  "any 
building  or  part  thereof  which  is  occupied  as  the  residence  of  three  fam- 
ilies or  more  living  independently  of  each  other  and  doing  their  own 
cooking  on  the  premises."  It  includes  apartment  houses,  flat  houses 
and  all  other  houses  of  similar  character.  The  size  of  the  problem  in 
New  York  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  we  have  to-day  one  hundred 
four  thousand  recognized,  legal  tenement  houses  occupied  by  about 
four  and  a  quarter  millions  of.  population.  The  work  of  the  tenement 
house  department  is  in  a  sense  almost  as  simple  as  the  work  of  the  health 
department  as  described  to  you  by  Dr.  Goldwater  is  complex.  Its 
work  is  to  attempt  to  prevent  evil  conditions  by  operating  in  three  direc- 
tions— structural,  sanitary  and  sociological. 

We  have  jurisdiction  over  the  erection  of  all  new  multiple  dwellings. 
All  plans  for  new  multiple  dwellings  or  tenement  houses  have  to  be 
submitted  to  the  tenement  house  department  for  examination  as  to 
light,  ventilation,  fireproofing,  fire  egress,  and  sanitation,  before  the 
plans  are  forwarded  to  the  bureau  of  buildings  for  its  action.  During 
the  process  of  erection  every  new  building  is  continually  inspected  by 

(44) 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND   SANITATION  45 

inspectors  of  the  tenement  house  department  for  those  particular  things, 
but  not  in  relation  to  materials  of  construction.  This  is  the  matter 
concerning  which  you  have  heard  so  much  recently,  conflict  of  juris- 
diction and  multiple  inspections.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  tenement 
house  inspection  does  not  take  into  account  any  of  the  things  inspected 
by  the  bureau  of  buildings,  nor  does  the  bureau  of  buildings  take  into 
account  any  of  the  things  inspected  by  the  tenement  house  department. 

In  one  direction  only  can  we  judge  with  certainty  how  effective  our 
work  has  been, — that  is,  in  the  matter  of  fire  protection.  We  have  now 
twenty -four  thousand  new-law  tenements,  as  they  are  called,  in  the  city 
of  New  York.  We  have  never  lost  a  single  life  by  fire  in  any  one  of  those 
buildings,  which  is  fair  evidence  of  the  efficiency  with  which  the  fire 
protection  provisions  of  the  law  have  been  carried  out.  As  you  realize, 
it  is  frequently  much  easier  to  get  a  law  enacted  than  it  is  to  get  it  en- 
forced. I  would  not  in  this  presence  refer  to  the  death  rate  and  the 
reduction  in  death  rate  as  an  illustration  of  the  work  of  the  tenement 
house  department — though  it  is  a  testimony  to  the  efficiency  of  our 
work, — because,  of  course,  it  merely  shares  with  other  departments 
whatever  credit  may  be  due.  Dr.  Goldwater  compiles  the  figures  and 
we  try  to  keep  them  down  as  low  as  possible. 

The  next  object  of  our  work  is  the  alteration  of  old  buildings,  to  make 
them  conform  to  a  fair  sanitary  standard.  From  almost  1830  up  to 
1900  tenement  houses  of  many  kinds,  nearly  all  bad,  were  being  con- 
structed in  New  York.  The  houses  were  chiefly  of  two  types:  first, 
the  railroad  flat,  which  ran  through  solid  without  any  light  shaft  what- 
ever; and  second,  the  dumb-bell  type,  which  provided  a  very  narrow 
shaft  giving  practically  no  light  and  little  ventilation  to  the  lower  rooms 
of  the  building.  In  some  buildings  we  found  on  either  side  six  rooms — 
that  is,  twelve  rooms  on  a  floor, — of  which  only  the  front  and  rear  rooms 
got  any  direct  light  or  ventilation,  the  four  inside  rooms  being  absolutely 
dark  except  for  such  artificial  lighting  as  might  be  provided.  To  outlaw 
these  buildings  was  impossible;  so  the  law  required  windows  to  be  put 
into  the  partitions,  dividing  those  rooms  from  the  light  rooms,  front 
and  rear,  thus  providing  some  slight  measure  of  light  and  ventilation. 
These  things  have  been  done.  While  we  started  out  with  a  census  of 
about  three  hundred  seventy-five  thousand  wholly  dark  or  inadequately 
lighted  rooms,  the  number  on  the  last  report  to  me  was  less  than  ten 
thousand  in  the  whole  city  of  New  York.  We  found  the  only  sanitary 
accommodation  for  over  ten  thousand  tenement  houses  to  be  school  sinks 
in  the  yards.  There  is  not  a  single  tenement  house  in  operation  in  the 
city  of  New  York  to-day  dependent  on  a  school  sink. 


46  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

We  get  about  40,000  complaints  a  year  from  occupants  of  tenement 
houses.  About  20%  have  not  sufficient  basis  to  justify  a  complaint. 
All  are  examined,  whether  signed  or  anonymous.  It  is  the  custom  among 
some  landlords,  especially  in  the  poorer  houses,  if  tenants  complain  about 
conditions  on  the  premises,  to  serve  them  with  a  notice  to  quit.  Hence 
all  complaints  sent  in  to  the  department  are  held  confidential. 

A  big  division  of  our  work  is  the  continuous  observation  of  the  sanitary 
condition  of  buildings,  the  removal  of  rubbish  from  cellars,  the  keeping 
of  fire-escapes  clear  so  that  they  may  be  properly  used.  It  seems  almost 
incredible,  but  there  are  thousands  of  people  in  New  York  who  do  not 
know  what  a  fire-escape  is  on  the  building  for.  They  think  it  is  an  addi- 
tional store-room,  or  a  balcony  upon  which  the  children  may  play  so 
as  to  save  them  from  the  dangers  of  the  street.  We  frequently  find  hatch- 
ways in  fire-escapes  closed  by  planking  cut  to  measure  and  fastened 
down  with  wire,  so  that  an  inspector  must  spend  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes 
to  remove  it.  It  certainly  is  not  possible  that  anyone  who  knows  the  pur- 
pose of  a  fire-escape  would  voluntarily  run  the  risk  that  that  kind  of 
thing  involves.  Thanks  to  the  active  co-operation  of  Police  Commis- 
sioner Woods,  that  evil  has  been  much  reduced  during  the  past  year. 
I  am  glad  to  say  that  I  think  the  condition  of  the  fire-escapes  of  New 
York,  as  to  both  structural  conditions  and  freedom  from  obstructions, 
is  better  than  at  any  time  previous  in  its  history. 

The  work  of  the  department  has  gone  on  with  a  constantly  lessening 
budget.  Last  year  we  were  able  to  reduce  our  working  force  by  sixty- 
three.  Accordingly,  we  were  able  to  make  a  return  of  about  eight  per  cent 
of  our  entire  appropriation  to  the  city.  Our  work  naturally  diminishes 
as  the  old  buildings  are  altered  to  conform  with  the  requirements  of 
the  law  as  it  stands. 

As  long  as  the  city  must  assume  responsibility  for  the  care  and  dis- 
position of  its  human  deficients  (whether  such  persons  be  deficient  mor- 
ally, physically  or  economically),  it  is  clearly  a  matter  of  prudence  that 
it  should  try  to  insure  itself  against  constantly  mounting  charges  for 
charities,  correction  and  protective  services  by  insisting  that  housing 
conditions  shall  not  be  permitted  which  tend  to  debilitate  the  citizen 
and  render  him  liable  to  become  a  public  charge. 

The  appropriation  for  the  maintenance  of  the  tenement  house  depart- 
ment may  therefore  be  regarded  entirely  as  insurance;  apart  from  the 
humanitarian  considerations  which  enter  into  the  saving  of  lives  from 
destruction  by  disease  and  fire,  the  work  of  the  department  tends  in 
other  ways  effectively  to  diminish  crime  and  vice. 


THE   HOSPITALS   OF   THE   CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 

GEORGE   O'HANLON 
Medical  Superintendent,  Bellevue  and  Allied  Hospitals 

BELLEVUE  Hospital,  at  26th  Street  and  First  Avenue,  Gouver- 
neur  Hospital  at  the  foot  of  Gouverneur  Street,  Harlem  Hospital 
at  136th  Street  and  Lenox  Avenue,  Fordham  Hospital  at  Fordham 
Road  and  Southern  Boulevard,  the  Bellevue  Hospital  Training  School 
for  Mid  wives  at  223  East  26th  Street,  and  the  Ocean  Beach  Hospital 
for  Bone  and  Joint  Tuberculosis,  at  Rockaway  Park,  are  the  institutions 
comprising  the  department  of  Bellevue  and  allied  hospitals,  one  of  the 
more  recently  created  of  the  city  departments,  established  by  an  act 
of  the  legislature  in  1902,  which  act  separated  these  hospitals  from  the 
department  of  public  charities,  and  placed  their  administration  under 
a  board  of  trustees,  seven  in  number,  together  with  the  commissioner  of 
public  charities,  ex  officio,  each  of  whom  serves  without  salary  for  a 
period  of  seven  years. 

As  vacancies  occur  in  this  board  by  reason  of  the  expiration  of  the 
term  of  office,  resignation  or  death,  appointments  are  made  by  the  mayor 
upon  the  nomination  of  the  president  or  executive  head  of  the  following 
organizations:  The  United  Hebrew  Charities  of  the  City  of  New  York; 
the  Particular  Council  of  New  York  of  the  Society  of  St.  Vincent  de 
Paul,  and  the  New  York  Association  for  Improving  the  Condition  of 
the  Poor. 

The  charter  provides  that  any  person  injured  or  taken  sick  in  the 
streets,  or  in  any  public  square  or  place  within  the  city  of  New  York, 
may  be  sent  to  and  shall  be  received  by  the  said  hospitals  for  temporary 
care  and  treatment,  irrespective  of  his  or  her  place  of  residence.  The 
said  board  of  trustees  shall  provide  and  maintain  suitable  rooms  or 
wards  for  the  reception,  examination  and  temporary  care  of  persons 
alleged  to  be  insane.  Persons  who  do  not  reside  in  the  city  of  New  York 
may  also  be  received  for  treatment  provided  that  no  such  person  is 
received  to  the  exclusion  of  patients  who  reside  in  said  city,  and  that 
they  pay  for  their  care  and  treatment  such  sum  as  may  be  determined 
upon  by  the  board  of  trustees. 

In  accordance  with  these  general  provisions  there  were  admitted  to 
the  various  hospitals  of  the  department  last  year,  63,357  persons.  While 
the  majority  of  this  number  were  medical  or  surgical  cases,  10,250  were 
treated  for  alcoholism  and  4600  were  insane. 

Every  person  needing  hospital  relief  is  received;  however,  not  all  are 

(47) 


48  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

kept.  Persons  suffering  from  contagious  or  infectious  diseases  other  than 
chicken-pox,  mumps  and  whooping  cough  are  at  once  transferred  to  the 
hospitals  for  contagious  diseases  of  the  board  of  health.  Cases  of  tuber- 
culosis are  transferred  to  the  various  hospitals  or  sanitariums  for  tubercu- 
losis as  their  condition  permits.  So-called  chronic  cases,  or  cases  requiring 
prolonged  hospital  treatment,  are  transferred  to  the  hospitals  -of  the 
department  of  public  charities. 

Patients  either  come  to  the  hospital  by  themselves,  are  brought  by 
their  friends,  or  are  brought  in  ambulances.  The  city  is  divided  into 
districts,  each  hospital  maintaining  an  ambulance  service,  having  as- 
signed to  it  a  certain  number  of  city  blocks  immediately  adjacent  thereto. 
All  ambulance  calls  should  come  through  the  police  department,  the 
policeman  at  the  point  sending  in  the  call  to  headquarters,  and  head- 
quarters transmitting  the  call  to  the  hospital  caring  for  the  district. 

The  first  ambulance  service  in  the  world  to  be  connected  with  a  general 
hospital  was  established  at  Bellevue  Hospital  in  1869.  Two  ambulances 
were  placed  in  commission  and  during  the  first  year  responded  to  4200 
calls.  The  ambulances  of  the  department  of  Bellevue  and  allied  hos- 
pitals alone  responded  to  32,307  calls  last  year. 

Each  hospital  maintains  an  out  patient  department.  The  visits  to 
the  various  classes  last  year  totaled  429,113. 

Two  boats  are  maintained  as  day  camps  for  incipient  or  arrested 
cases  of  tuberculosis,  caring  particularly  for  children  who  are  obliged 
to  leave  the  public  schools  by  reason  of  their  tubercular  condition.  For 
these  there  are  maintained  open-air  school  rooms,  lessons  being  carried 
on  along  with  the  treatment,  so  that  when  the  cure  is  effected  the  child's 
standing  in  school  has  not  been  retarded. 

The  training  school  for  midwives  was  established  in  1911,  and  is  the 
first  attempt  in  this  country  to  provide  practical  training  for  women 
wishing  to  practice  midwifery.  Over  40%  of  the  births  in  New  York 
city  are  attended  by  midwives.  The  course  covers  a  period  of  six  months 
during  which  time  the  pupil  resides  in  the  school. 

The  Ocean  Beach  Hospital,  at  Rockaway  Park,  is  to  be  opened  on 
April  15th  for  the  care  and  treatment  of  bone  and  joint  tuberculosis. 

Mainly  through  the  efforts  of  Miss  Louisa  Lee  Schuyler,  the  first 
organized  training  school  for  nurses  was  established  at  Bellevue  Hos- 
pital in  1873.  There  are  now  on  the  nursing  staff  in  the  various  depart- 
ments 525  graduate,  post  graduate,  affiliating  and  pupil  nurses. 

One  hundred  and  eighteen  (118)  medical  internes,  2  dental  internes, 
90  pupil  male  attendants  and  900  employes  complete  the  resident  work- 
ing staff. 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND   SANITATION  49 

Bellevue  Hospital  traces  its  origin  to  a  very  humble  source,  having 
been  established  in  December  1658,  in  a  house  on  Broad  street,  when  the 
infant  city  had  a  population  of  only  about  1000,  the  appropriation  for 
its  maintenance  that  year  being  $500.  It  may  therefore  justly  lay 
claim  to  being  the  oldest  institution  of -its  kind  on  the  soil  of  the  United 
States.  There  are  no  records  of  the  number  of  persons  cared  for,  but 
as  it  had  only  six  beds,  the  number  must  have  been  few.  The  appropria- 
tion for  1914  was  $1,352,073.98,  and  717,804  days'  treatment  was  rendered. 


NEXT  STEPS  IN   PUBLIC   HEALTH 

HOMER  FOLKS 

Secretary  of  the  State  Charities  Aid  Association 

y  I  ^HE  health  department  differs  markedly  from  most  other  city 
J^  departments  in  one  important  particular.  While  the  others 
have  some  one  rather  definite,  measurable,  concrete  thing  to 
do,  the  health  department  has  an  unlimited  and  increasing  number  of 
indefinite  and  unlimited  things  to  do.  It  is  and  always  will  be  impossible 
to  say  that  the  health  department  performs  a  hundred  per  cent  or  fifty 
per  cent  or  any  other  particular  per  cent  of  all  the  work  which  ought  to 
be  done,  and  which  might  practically  and  advantageously  be  done  to 
protect  the  health  of  the  community.  At  the  present  moment  there 
are  all  ready  and  waiting  to  be  done,  in  applying  to  the  life  of  the  city 
the  things  that  we  know  how  to  do  for  the  saving  of  life  and  the  pre- 
vention of  sickness,  at  least  ten  times  the  number  of  things  that  the 
department  can  possibly  undertake.  Furthermore,  in  these  days  of 
institutes  of  medical  research,  whenever  the  scientific  men  in  the  labora- 
tories discover  a  new  germ,  or  a  new  way  of  controlling  an  old  germ, 
in  substance  they  add,  or  should  add,  a  new  bureau  to  the  department 
of  health.  With  the  advance  of  sanitary  science,  moreover,  it  is  surpris- 
ing how  much  we  unlearn.  The  department  of  health  rests  upon  a 
science  which  is  only  in  its  beginnings,  which  is  constantly  changing 
its  emphasis  and  bringing  new  and  unforeseen  elements  into  the  situation. 
For  that  reason  the  most  difficult  problem  of  the  health  department  is 
to  decide  which  of  the  numerous  things  that  it  might  do  it  actually  will 
undertake. 

The  various  possibilities  fall  into  two  general  classes  or  categories. 
One  proceeds  by  direct  attack  upon  infection  itself.  It  tries  to  stamp 
out  or  dam  up  or  neutralize  or  destroy  the  germs  that  cause  so  many 
of  the  diseases  which  shorten  our  lives.  There  are  many  different  ways 
of  doing  that, — direct  attack  and  indirect  attack, —  as  many  ways  as  a 
fighting  army  has  in  the  field.  Then  there  is  the  other  general  plan  of 
increasing  our  resistance  to  these  germs  so  that  not  so  many  of  us  will 
succumb  to  them,  and  not  so  quickly  and  completely. 

Among  the  means  of  increasing  resistance,  we  might  note  a  few:  First, 
education.  The  largest  function  of  public  health  education  and  the 
most  difficult,  as  it  is  the  most  underlying  and  fundamental,  is  that  of 

(50) 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND   SANITATION  51 

changing  the  attitude  of  all  of  us  in  regard  to  the  possibility  of  control 
of  sickness  and  death.  For  countless  thousands  of  years  we  have  drawn 
what  little  consolation  we  could  from  placing  the  responsibility  upon 
others  and  upon  Providence.  Hence  it  is  exceedingly  difficult,  even 
for  the  most  thoughtful  of  us,  to  face  the  fact  that  we  are  the  arbiters 
of  our  own  fate  in  this  particular  as  in  others.  The  moment  the  com- 
munity as  a  whole  really,  seriously,  actually  believes  the  motto  of  the 
New  York  city  health  department  that  "public  health  is  purchasable," 
it  will  be  purchased,  and  in  increasing  quantities.  Very  few  of  us  really 
believe  that  as  yet,  although  we  may  give  it  a  half-hearted  acquiescence. 
It  has  not  become  a  conviction  upon  which  action  is  born.  The  second 
means  of  increasing  resistance  is  periodic  physical  examination,  especially 
of  the  very  young  and  of  those  past  middle  life.  I  should  put  third  the 
matter  which  is  so  largely  under  the  control  of  Commissioner  Murphy, 
the  conditions  under  which  we  live  at  home;  fourth,  the  hours  and 
conditions  under  which  we  work;  and  last,  our  means  of  recreation. 
All  these  different  things  we  might  take  up  advisedly,  advantageously, 
and  effectively,  but  which  of  them  shall  we  actually  do? 

In  only  one  respect  should  I  register  a  difference  of  opinion  from  Com- 
missioner Goldwater.  He  indicated  that  he  thought  we  might  continue 
for  a  series  of  years  to  reduce  the  expenditures  of  the  department  of 
health.  I  think  he  accomplished  a  miracle  in  leaving  a  balance  of  one 
hundred  seventy  thousand  dollars  last  year;  I  greatly  mistake  the  facts 
if  we  do  not  see,  instead  of  a  reduction,  a  very  large  increase  in  the  expendi- 
tures of  the  department  of  health  in  the  next  decade,  and  the  more  com- 
petent the  commissioner  we  have — and  I  only  hope  we  may  retain  our 
present  one  for  a  long  time  yet  to  come — the  larger  that  increase  will 
be,  because  public  health  and  conservation  is  one  of  the  increasing  func- 
tions of  government.  We  are  spending  only  three  million  dollars  for 
health  and  eighteen  million  dollars  for  police, — that  is,  just  to  keep  our- 
selves in  order.  If  we  would  spend  a  part  of  that  in  finding  the  relatively 
small  number  of  the  mentally  deficient  and  the  incorrigible,  and  would 
provide  for  their  care,  we  might  devote  a  large  part  of.  that  eighteen  million 
dollars  to  more  fruitful  results.  What  could  be  more  useless  in  these 
modern  times,  during  the  daytime  at  least,  than  the  policeman  walking 
up  and  down  the  streets  looking  for  nothing  in  particular?  I  confi- 
dently expect  to  see  the  appropriations  to  those  two  departments  re- 
versed, three  million  dollars  for  police  and  eighteen  million  dollars 
for  public  health  in  the  city  of  New  York. 

From  my  observation  of  the  work  of  the  state  health  department, 
which  has  been  a  good  deal  closer  than  that  of  the  city  department,  it 


52  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

seems  to  me  that  the  immediate  things  to  be  done  would  come  something 
in  the  following  order: 

In  the  first  place,  the  control  of  whooping  cough.  What  a  ridiculous 
thing  it  is  that  we  should  allow  a  disease  like  whooping  cough  to  remain 
one  of  the  large  factors  in  mortality,  responsible  for  over  a  half  of  one 
per  cent  of  all  the  deaths  in  the  city  and  the  state!  It  is  a  serious  disease 
among  infants,  and  is  susceptible  of  control  by  measures  now  perfectly 
well  understood.  I  would  spend  some  of  the  additional  million  or  millions 
of  dollars  in  clinics  and  hospitals  and  sanitary  supervision  of  whooping- 
cough. 

Measles,  that  insignificant  disease,  seems  to  be  the  deciding  factor 
in  almost  as  large  a  number  of  cases  as  whooping  cough.  It  also  is  sub- 
ject to  control  by  measures  no  less  perfectly  understood. 

Diptheria  has  not  been  banished  by  the  discovery  of  the  antitoxin. 
It  ought  to  be.  We  know  how  to  do  hundreds  of  deaths  better  per  year 
than  we  do  do.  We  have  made  only  a  relatively  small  use  of  that  enormous 
life-saving  opportunity. 

Tuberculosis  is  almost  the  largest,  if  not  the  largest,  cause  of  death. 
Excellent  work  is  being  done,  admirable  progress  is  being  made,  all  of 
us  feeling  a  little  uncertain  about  relative  values  and  not  knowing  just 
exactly  which  is  the  most  important  of  the  various  things  we  are  trying 
to  do.  My  suggestion  is  the  creation  of  a  department  for  the  elimination 
of  tuberculosis,  with  a  commissioner  appointed  for  ten  years  at  ten 
thousand  dollars  a  year. 

I  should  put  next  the  control  of  the  venereal  diseases.  A  promising 
start  has  been  made  in  the  health  department  through  private  aid, 
through  contributions  coming  not  from  the  city  government,  which  was 
not  able  to  provide  them,  but  from  that  terribly  tainted  source,  a  founda- 
tion. I  think  it  is  about  the  best  thing  that  is  being  done  in  the  city  of 
New  York;  but  to  how  slight  an  extent  are  we  as  yet  availing  ourselves 
of  the  opportunities  for  making  a  diagnosis  of  these  diseases  and  for 
their  treatment!  Think  of  the  wonderful  treatment  for  syphilis  which 
was  recently  discovered  and  the  slight  extent  to  which  as  yet,  taking 
the  population  of  the  city  as  a  whole,  it  is  used.  In  this  particular  the 
present  activities  of  the  health  department  ought  to  be  multiplied  by 
twelve  instantly  unless  someone  else  does  it.  If  the  private  agencies 
of  the  city  will  come  forward  and  do  it,  well  and  good;  but  the  main  thing 
in  this  as  in  all  other  lines  of  health  work  is  that  it  be  done,  that  we  do 
not  think  so  much  about  who  is  to  do  it  that  the  job  goes  undone.  Get 
it  done.  The  city  is  the  residuary  legatee,  as  I  see  it,  of  the  things  that 
other  people  do  not  take  up  and  do. 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND  SANITATION  53 

We  are  quite  a  long  distance  yet  from  the  control  of  typhoid.  Several 
hundred  lives  a  year  can  be  saved  in  the  city  of  New  York  by  a  more 
comprehensive,  closer,  sharper,  keener  dealing  with  that  disease. 

Leaving  the  things  that  have  to  do  with  the  control  of  communicable 
diseases,  and  turning  for  a  moment  to  the  things  that  look  farther  ahead, 
especially  the  public  education  work,  these  seem  to  me  the  things  to  be 
emphasized.  I  was  much  struck  in  looking  over  Poor  Richard's  Almanac 
the  other  day  to  see  that  in  1747  Benjamin  Franklin  said,  "Nine  men 
in  ten  are  suicides."  I  think  he  might  change  it  and  say  that  nine  men 
out  of  ten  are  suicides  or  homicides;  that  is  to  say,  the  death  of  perhaps 
nine  persons  out  of  ten  occurs  when  it  does  now  either  because  of  some 
fault  of  the  man,  something  that  he  did  that  he  should  not  have  done, 
or  left  undone  that  he  should  have  done,  or  through  the  fault  of  someone 
who  had  some  close  and  vital  relation  to  him,  his  parents  in  the  course 
of  his  childhood  or  his  associates.  To  make  that  fact  enter  into  the  daily 
consciousness  of  the  community,  to  make  it  a  vital  element  of  our  knowl- 
edge, a  part  of  the  mental  furniture  to  which  we  become  accustomed, 
a  part  of  the  underlying  assumptions  out  of  which  our  conduct  springs, — 
that  is  the  big  thing.  To  destroy  confidence  in — I  was  almost  about 
to  say  medicines — nostrums  such  as  our  ancestors  had,  to  get  over  the 
idea  that  the  medicine  man  and  the  dance  and  incantation  would  cure 
disease — to  do  that  we  have  to  recover  from  a  great  many  of  our  under- 
lying assumptions.  A  confidence  should  be  created  in  the  realities  of 
personal  hygiene.  People  should  be  led  to  believe  that  all  this  talk 
about  air  and  ventilation  and  food  and  rest  and  sleep  really  does  mean 
something  after  all;  for  most  of  us  do  not  take  any  stock  in  it.  We 
think  we  do  and  we  say  it  over  and  over  again  and  talk  it  to  our  children, 
but  we  go  on  and  do  just  as  we  did  before;  whereas,  if  we  really  believed 
in  it,  we  would  pay  some  attention  to  it.  We  are  not  yet  convinced  that 
personal  hygiene  has  a  real  bearing  on  sickness  and  on  death. 

Public  education  as  to  the  methods  of  infection  so  that  they  may  be 
avoided,  and  lastly,  public  education  that  is  addressed  to  the  medical 
profession  itself,  should  be  given  more  time  and  thought.  A  fair  per- 
centage of  all  the  physicians  in  this  city  are  already  on  the  staff  of  the 
health  department,  but  all  of  them  actually,  inherently,  inevitably, 
unofficially,  are  members  of  the  department  of  health.  Perhaps  its 
most  difficult  task  is  to  socialize  the  medical  profession — not  in  any 
hard  and  fast  way,  and  not  necessarily  by  making  it  a  part  of  a  public 
department  in  any  outward  fashion,  but  by  reaching  it  and  getting  its 
attention  turned  toward  the  tasks  of  public  health,  instead  of  letting  it 
do  so  much  of  what  it  now  does  that  is  practically  not  worth  doing  at  all. 


POLICE  ADMINISTRATION 

ARTHUR  WOODS 
Commissioner  of  the  Department  of  Police 

THE  police  force  in  New  York  city  numbers  just  short  of 
eleven  thousand  men,  and  the  cost  to  the  city  yearly 
to  support  it  is  about  eighteen  million  dollars.  The  force 
is  divided,  roughly,  into  two  departments:  the  uniformed  force 
and  the  detective  bureau. 

The  detective  bureau  is  used  primarily,  as  its  name  indicates, 
to  detect  criminals.  It  comes  into  operation  after  the  crime  has 
been  committed — in  other  words,  after  a  criminal  has  outwitted 
the  patrolling  force  and,  in  spite  of  them,  has  managed  to  commit 
a  crime.  The  duty  of  the  detective  bureau  is  to  apprehend  the 
criminal,  and  to  recover  stolen  property. 

There  are,  and  probably  always  will  be,  discussions  as  to  the 
amount  of  centralization  or  decentralization  which  should  govern 
the  organization  of  a  detective  bureau.  In  England  the  tendency 
is  toward  decentralization;  in  Germany  the  detective  forces  are 
highly  centralized,  although  there  seems  to  be  a  movement  now 
toward  relaxing  the  highly  centralized  organization  in  favor  of 
local  subdivisions.  In  New  York  we  have  a  combination  of  the 
two  systems,  in  the  effort  to  adapt  the  best  features  of  both  to  the 
local  conditions  here.  Our  detective  bureau  proper  comprises 
about  six  hundred  men.  They  are  divided  into  nine  branch 
bureaus;  four  in  Manhattan,  one  in  The  Bronx,  two  in  Brooklyn, 
one  in  Queens  and  one  in  Staten  Island.  Each  one  of  these  branch 
bureaus  is  a  complete  organization  in  itself,  and  handles  crime  that 
occurs  in  the  locality  which  it  covers. 

Besides  these  local  branch  bureaus  divided  geographically 
there  are  also  operating  from  police  headquarters  a  number  of 
squads  made  up  of  men  who  are  skilled  in  the  particular  kind  of 
crime  which  they  are  assigned  to  work  on.  These  special  men 
working  from  headquarters  operate  in  all  parts  of  the  city.  There 
are  special  squads,  for  instance,  dealing  with  homicides,  with 
habit-forming  drugs,  with  loft  burglaries,  with  pickpockets,  with 

(54) 


POLICE  ADMINISTRATION  55 

mendicants,  with  white  slave  traffickers,  with  gunmen,  with  auto- 
mobile thieves,  with  unidentified  dead,  and  with  missing  persons. 

Complete  files  of  all  cases  are  kept  in  the  central  filing  bureau 
at  police  headquarters,  and  duplicate  records  are  kept  at  the 
different  branch  bureaus  with  reference  to  their  local  cases.  Such 
records  must  be  complete,  yet  it  is  of  great  importance  to  the 
effectiveness  of  detective  work  that  individual  detectives  be  not 
too  much  burdened  with  the  duty  of  writing  out  detailed  reports. 
The  best  man  at  catching  thieves  often  is  hard  put  to  it  when  he 
comes  to  write  what  would  seem  to  be  a  simple  report.  To  meet 
this  situation,  we  are  now  working  toward  a  system  by  which 
stenographers  will  be  assigned  to  each  branch  bureau.  They  will 
do  all  the  mechanical  work  of  making  up  reports,  leaving  the 
detectives  free  to  do  the  work  for  which  they  are  best  fitted. 

The  police  commissioner  by  law  is  empowered,  at  his  discretion, 
to  designate  not  more  than  150  detectives  "first  grade,"  which 
means  that  their  salary  is  equal  to  that  of  a  police  lieutenant, 
$2,250  per  annum.  It  is  of  supreme  importance  that  the  men  in 
the  bureau  should  have  absolute  confidence  that  the  sole  way  to 
obtain  first  grade  is  by  doing  better  detective  work  than  the  other 
men.  If  there  should  be  a  suspicion  in  the  minds  of  the  men  that 
the  way  to  first  grade  is  through  the  influence  of  powerful  friends 
the  efficiency  of  the  detective  bureau  would  suffer  seriously.  In 
order  to  make  it  sure  that  the  150  first-grade  detectives  shall  be 
the  150  men  in  the  bureau  who  are  doing  the  best  detective  work, 
we  are  trying  to  devise  a  scheme  of  records,  which  shall  show 
exactly  what  kind  of  work  each  detective  is  doing.  It  is  extraor- 
dinarily difficult  to  devise  such  a  record,  since  the  quality  of 
detective  work  is  something  that  does  not  lend  itself  easily  to 
expression  in  terms  of  figures  and  percentages.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  try  to  rate  the  men  without  written  records,  basing  the 
rating  upon  the  judgment  of  the  men's  work  by  superior  officers, 
suspicions  of  favoritism  are  bound  to  enter  in. 

Very  careful  records  of  crimes  reported  are  kept,  so  that  we 
shall  know  exactly  what  crimes  are  being  committed,  and  in  just 
what  localities.  These  records  are  not  merely  kept  by  figures 
showing  the  different  kinds  of  crime  committed  in  the  different 
precincts,  but  they  are  also  graphically  represented  on  charts, 


56  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

different  symbols  being  used  for  different  crimes;  so  that  by  a 
glance  at  the  map  of  any  locality  of  the  greater  city  we  can  see 
just  what  crimes  have  been  committed  there,  and  we  are  therefore 
in  a  position  to  maneuver  the  police  forces  to  meet  any  situation 
which  arises.  Without  such  elaborate  systems  as  this  there  would 
be  no  way  of  giving  prompt  and  adequate  attention  to  actual 
localities  where  bands  of  criminals  may  have  started  operating. 

Although  the  prime  function  of  the  detective  bureau  is  to  detect 
crime  which  has  been  committed,  in  actual  practise  it  is  found  best 
to  have  detectives  also  do  a  large  amount  of  preventive  work. 
To  this  end,  detectives  are  regularly  assigned  to  car  lines,  terminals, 
and  districts  where  different  crimes  are  likely  to  be  committed,  for 
the  purpose  of  taking  such  action  as  shall  deter  the  criminal  from 
any  attempt  to  commit  crime.  Many  criminals  are  said  to«  be 
unwilling  to  work  in  localities  unless  they  can  arrange  beforehand 
with  the  police  to  be  undisturbed.  When  General  Bingham  was 
police  commissioner,  there  were  many  complaints  of  pocket  picking 
on  a  certain  car  line  in  the  city.  Two  detectives  had  been  assigned 
to  that  car  line  for  a  long  time  to  prevent  pocket  picking.  A  bill 
was  passed,  giving  the  police  commissioner  power  to  transfer  out 
of  the  detective  bureau  such  men  as  he  deemed  best,  and  upon  the 
passage  of  the  bill  the  police  commissioner  transferred  these  two 
detectives  to  do  work  in  uniform.  From  that  day  on  complaints 
of  pocket  picking  on  that  car  line  ceased. 

The  uniformed  force  is  primarily  a  preventive  force.  The  men 
patrol  the  streets  for  the  purpose  of  making  it  difficult  for  a 
criminal  to  commit  a  crime.  We  have  given  much  study  during 
the  past  year  to  methods  of  patrol,  with  the  idea  of  giving  to  each 
different  kind  of  locality  in  the  city  the  particular  method  of 
patrol  which  is  best  adapted  to  prevent  crime  there.  It  is  easy  to 
see,  for  instance,  that  a  scheme  of  patrol  which  would  work  best 
in  the  crowded  quarters  of  Manhattan  would  be  wholly  unfitted 
to  the  outlying  districts  of  Queens.  In  general  the  system  that  we 
are  instituting  in  the  more  sparsely  settled  communities,  where 
the  distances  are  great,  comprises  the  establishment  of  a  large 
number  of  sub-stations, — small  booths  in  which  bicycle  policemen 
are  on  duty  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night,  connected  with  the 
station-house  by  the  regular  police  wire,  and  with  the  nearest 


POLICE  ADMINISTRATION  57 

telephone  central  by  an  outside  wire.  This  means  that  anyone  in 
need  of  the  services  of  a  policeman  can  call  him  quickly  by  tele- 
phone, and  he  can  respond  quickly  on  a  bicycle.  The  patrol  of 
such  localities  is  done  on  bicycles  or  motorcycles.  A  horse  is  of 
little  value  for  such  police  work :  on  an  eight-hour  tour  of  duty  a 
mounted  man  cannot  cover  much  more  ground  than  a  man  afoot, 
whereas  a  man  on  a  bicycle  can  cover  far  more  territory  and  can 
leave  his  machine  in  case  of  need  far  more  quickly  than  a  mounted 
man  can  leave  his  horse. 

In  the  more  closely  settled  parts  of  the  city  the  old  system  of 
foot  patrol  with  short  posts  is  the  best.  In  combination  with  this, 
however,  we  are  instituting  a  series  of  signal  flash-lights.  A 
policeman  is  in  sight  of  one  of  these  lights  at  all  times.  By  pushing 
a  button  a  civilian  who  needs  a  policeman  can  flash  the  light.  It 
can  also  be  flashed  from  the  station-house  by  the  sergeant  at  the 
desk.  By  this  means  a  person  needing  a  policeman  quickly  can 
call  him  either  by  running  to  the  box  and  flashing  the  light  himself, 
or  by  telephoning  to  police  headquarters  and  having  the  station- 
house  flash  the  light,  then  speaking  to  the  policeman  who  responds 
on  the  telephone,  and  sending  him  where  he  is  needed. 

Besides  the  ordinary  patrolling  of  the  uniformed  force,  there  are 
almost  600  men  whose  first  duty  is  to  regulate  traffic.  Most  of 
these  are  on  foot,  but  there  are  others  on  bicycles,  motorcycles  and 
horses.  A  man  mounted  on  a  horse  is  of  great  value  in  the  regula- 
tion of  traffic.  He  can  get  to  a  congested  spot  quickly  in  case  of 
need,  and  from  his  position  on  the  horse  he  can  see  over  the  traffic, 
and  often  prevent  a  traffic  tangle  which  otherwise  would  tie  up 
things  for  some  time.  We  are  emphasizing  more  and  more  the 
fact  that  traffic  regulation  is  concerned  principally  with  making 
the  streets  safe.  The  large  number  of  accidents  in  our  streets 
calls  for  strong  action.  A  committee  of  five  inspectors  was 
appointed  some  months  ago  to  deal  with  the  question  of  street 
safety;  we  now  have  reports  about  each  accident  that  occurs 
in  the  streets,  from  which  we  can  generalize  so  as  to  find  out  the 
causes  of  all  accidents.  This  has  never  been  possible  in  the  city 
before.  As  a  result  of  this  we  believe  that  we  are  progressing  in 
meeting  an  urgent  situation. 

The  harbor  squad  comprises  a  fleet  of  a  dozen  launches,  which 


58  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK    CITY 

patrol  the  waters  of  the  harbor  just  as  the  men  on  land  patrol  the 
streets. 

In  connection  with  the  uniformed  force,  a  large  number  of  men 
work  in  plain  clothes.  They  are  employed  in  the  work  of  enforc- 
ing sumptuary  laws,  the  laws  which  deal  with  our  manners  and 
customs  and  vices,  rather  than  our  crimes.  These  men  work  under 
the  direction  of  the  inspectors  of  districts.  The  whole  question  of 
the  regulation  of  public  morals  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  that  the 
department  has  to  deal  with,  the  main  sources  of  the  difficulty 
being  that  this  is  primarily  not  a  police  duty  at  all — European 
police  forces  are  not  saddled  with  it — and  that  laws  are  made  by 
the  state,  whereas  enforcement  lies  with  the  city.  Out  of  this 
duty  of  regulating  public  morals  have  arisen  all  the  police  scandals 
so  familiar  to  us.  If  this  city  had  a  reasonable  measure  of  home 
rule  in  regulating  its  own  affairs  I  believe  that  a  large  part  of  these 
troubles  would  be  avoided. 

I  have  said  that  the  work  of  the  detective  bureau  is  primarily 
that  of  arresting  a  criminal  who  has  committed  a  crime,  and  that 
the  work  of  the  uniformed  force  is  primarily  that  of  trying  to 
prevent  a  criminal  from  committing  a  crime.  These  are  the  two 
conventional  forms  of  police  activity.  We  have  been  trying  to 
go  a  step  further  and  to  use  the  power  of  the  police  to  prevent 
people  from  becoming  criminals.  Unemployment  and  poverty 
are  two  great  sources  of  criminal  acts.  This  winter  the  police,  in 
their  duty  of  suppressing  crime,  have  found  work  for  the  large 
number  of  men  and  have  given  relief  to  the  large  number  of 
emergency  cases  that  keep  coming  to  their  attention.  You  will  be 
interested  to  know  that  out  of  a  fund  of  $2,800  subscribed  for  this 
purpose  over  $1,900  was  given  by  policemen.  We  are  not  only 
trying  to  relieve  the  emergency,  but  also  to  put  the  individual  in 
touch  with  some  individual  or  organization  that  will  interest 
itself  in  the  case  and  assist  intelligently  until  the  person  in  trouble 
is  again  on  his  feet. 

We  have  made  it  possible  for  children  to  play  on  certain  chosen 
blocks  without  the  danger  of  being  mowed  down  by  vehicles. 
They  are  thus  given  a  wholesome  vent  for  their  natural  activity, 
instead  of  being  tempted  to  unlawful  acts.  Some  of  the  police 
captains  have  started  junior  police  forces,  organizing  the  boys  in 


POLICE  ADMINISTRATION  59 

a  neighborhood  in  such  a  way  as  to  put  them  on  the  side  of  law  and 
order  instead  of  against  it.  This  movement,  together  with  other 
movements  for  the  welfare  of  growing  boys,  gives  promise  of  being 
effective  in  reducing  crime. 

A  great  many  minor  offenses  are  committed  by  persons  through 
ignorance.  This  is  especially  true  of  a  city  which  has  a  population 
of  the  size  and  complexity  of  New  York.  The  police  are  trying 
to  treat  such  offenders  in  a  human  way,  helping  them  to  understand 
and  comply  with  the  laws  and  ordinances  by  advice  and  warning 
before  proceeding  to  the  extreme  of  serving  a  summons  or  making 
an  arrest.  The  results  attending  this  work  have  been  very  gratify- 
ing. If  an  immigrant  finds  himself  haled  before  a  court  for  doing 
something  which  in  itself  is  not  wrong,  and  which  he  did  with  no 
wrong  intent,  he  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  this  free  country  of 
ours  is  as  arbitrary  a  place  as  the  country  he  came  from,  and  that 
the  police  and  the  government,  of  which  the  police  are  to  him  the 
only  visible  expression,  are  autocratic  and  natural  enemies.  This 
sort  of  thing  is  a  hotbed  of  law-breaking  and  violence,  and  I  believe 
thoroughly  that  the  police,  by  intelligent  and  painstaking  efforts, 
can  not  merely  attain  a  far  greater  degree  of  compliance  with  the 
ordinances,  but  can  also  instil  into  newly-arrived  foreigners  a 
wholly  different  conception  of  what  our  government  is. 

Out  of  the  eighteen  million  dollars  which  goes  to  support  the 
police  force  annually,  only  about  three  hundred  thousand  is  spent 
on  administration.  This  is  too  small.  If  the  city  is  to  spend 
almost  seventeen  million  dollars  for  salaries  and  pensions  of  police- 
men, it  is  short-sighted  not  to  spend  enough  for  administration 
to  make  certain  that  the  results  of  the  large  expenditure  are  all 
that  they  should  be.  The  administration  would  be  far  more 
effective,  also,  if  the  men  on  the  force  felt  that  the  administration 
had  a  longer  lease  of  life  than  history  shows  it  to  have  had  recently 
in  New  York.  If  the  head  of  the  force  and  the  policies  of  the  force 
are  to  change  every  few  months,  you  cannot  blame  a  policeman  for 
hesitating  as  to  the  character  of  police  duty  which  it  is  worth  while 
and  safe  for  him  to  perform. 

The  police  force  cannot  be,  in  this  country,  a  military  organiza- 
tion. From  the  very  nature  of  the  work  the  men  cannot,  like 
soldiers,  be  kept  in  squads  and  combinations,  always  under  the 


60  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

eye  of  a  superior  officer.  They  must  work  alone.  This  means  that 
they  must  be  animated  by  the  right  kind  of  spirit  and  ambition. 
We  are  trying  to  make  it  clear  to  every  man  on  the  force  that 
nothing  can  help  him  except  good  police  work,  and  nothing  can 
hurt  him  except  poor  police  work.  At  times  in  the  past  men  have 
been  better  able  to  get  the  good  things  that  they  wanted  through 
good  friends  than  through  good  work,  and  men  have  often  suffered, 
in  spite  of  doing  good  work,  because  that  work  happened  to  be 
directed  against  friends  of  people  in  power.  I  believe  that  the 
force  now  generally  understands  that  the  administration  stands 
back  of  every  policeman  if  he  tries  to  do  his  honest  duty,  even  if 
he  makes  a  mistake.  On  the  first  day  on  which  I  took  office,  a 
little  over  a  year  ago,  I  sent  out  a  general  order  allowing  any 
policeman  an  interview  with  the  commissioner  at  any  time  on  any 
subject  which  he  felt  he  wanted  to  talk  about.  I  have  repeatedly 
stated  to  the  force — and  believe  I  have  lived  up  to  it — that  they 
will  have  a  square  deal  without  favoritism,  without  fear  of  what 
enemies  can  do  against  them,  without  expectation  that  improper 
influences  can  do  anything  for  them. 

The  spirit  of  the  force  would  be  vastly  improved  if  promotion 
could  be  made  as  a  result  of  good  police  work.  The  civil  service 
examinations,  even  although  conducted  with  intelligence  and 
integrity,  are  not  successful  in  putting  at  the  top  of  the  list  the 
men  who  have  done  the  best  work.  Promotion,  therefore,  which 
is  so  desirable  to  a  policeman,  is  looked  upon  as  something  uncon- 
nected with  his  success  in  performing  his  duty  day  by  day. 

The  police  problem  here  in  New  York  is  commonly  believed 
to  be  very  difficult.  My  conviction  is  that  the  difficulties  are  due, 
fundamentally,  to  three  causes: 

1 .  The  uncertain  tenure  of  office  of  the  police  commissioner,  who 
is  a  sort  of  bird  of  passage,  often  flying  so  fast  that  the  force  have 
not  time  to  determine  his  species. 

2.  The  duty  of  regulating  the  public  morals  of  the  city  according 
to  laws  imposed  by  an  outside  power. 

3.  The  system  of  promotion,   which   I   have  just  spoken  of, 
which  puts  no  ambition  into  the  men  to  do  good  work  day  by  day, 
and  which  does  not  make  good  work  count  for  them,  and  does  not 
make  bad  work  count  against  them. 


POLICE  ADMINISTRATION  61 

If  we  could  correct  these  three  conditions,  we  might  dimmish 
the  number  of  interesting  stories  which  absorb  us  from  time  to 
time  in  the  public  prints,  but  we  should  go  far  toward  giving  New 
York  a  police  force  which  would  be  unequaled  anywhere. 


DISCUSSION  OF  POLICE  ADMINISTRATION 

CLEMENT  J.  DRISCOLL 
Former  Deputy  Police  Commissioner  of  New  York 

THE  police  commissioner  has  just  told  you  of  his  many  plans  for 
increasing  the  efficiency  of  New  York's  police  force.  During  his 
administration  he  has  inaugurated  and  developed  systems  of 
control  which  if  permitted  to  continue  in  their  growth  will  do  much  to 
change  the  attitude  of  the  police  force  and  of  the  public  toward  it.  Unfor- 
tunately, no  commissioner  will  ever  be  able,  regardless  of  his  wisdom  or 
ability,  to  rid  the  department  of  its  greatest  defects,  namely,  too  many 
commissioners,  and  too  much  politics.  All  the  good  that  Commissioner 
Woods  and  his  able  assistants  may  be  able  to  accomplish  during  their 
brief  term  may  be  swept  aside  by  the  signature  of  a  new  commissioner, 
coming  direct  from  the  office  of  the  politicians  who  seek  continually  to 
control  the  department  and  its  activities.  These  are  defects  for  which 
the  public,  represented  by  the  legislature,  is  responsible,  and  which 
can  be  removed  only  by  giving  to  the  police  commissioner  surety  of  tenure 
sufficiently  long  to  fix  properly  the  attitude  of  the  force,  to  restore  the 
confidence  of  the  people  in  their  policemen,  and  to  establish  precedents 
in  wise  administration  from  which  no  successor  can  afford  to  depart. 

Those  of  us  who  have  studied  police  procedure  here  and  abroad,  and 
have  read  from  time  to  time  the  exposures  of  the  corruption  within  New 
York's  police  department  have  found  the  cause  of  the  inefficiency  of  the 
police,  not  only  of  New  York,  but  of  Arr.er/ica,  in  rapid  changes  of  admin- 
istration, and  in  failure  to  free  the  police  from  the  grip  of  the  politician. 
New  York  has  had  ten  police  corrmissioners  in  thirteen  years.  In  con- 
sidering that  fact  remember  that  the  police  commissioner,  who  is  appointed 
by  the  mayor  and  is  removable  by  him  at  will,  is  in  complete  control  of 
the  11,000  policemen.  He  is  empowered  to  change  at  pleasure  every 
particle  of  administrative  procedure,  and  to  create  policies  of  law  enforce- 
ment, or  non-enforcement,  which  may  be  influenced  by  a  conscientious 
desire  to  provide  a  policy  representative  of  public  opinion,  or  prompted 
by  the  orders  of  his  political  masters. 

Some  students  of  municipal  government  deem  it  proper  that  adminis- 
trators in  municipalities  of  a  cosmopolitan  nature,  in  the  interest  of  what 
they  call  "representative  government,"  should  create  and  maintain 
independent  policies  of  law  enforcement.  So  far  as  police  organization 
and  administration  are  concerned,  however,  nothing  is  more  destructive 

(62) 


POLICE  ADMINISTRATION  63 

of  efficiency  and  more  conducive  to  corruption.  This  is  the  more  evi- 
dently true  when  these  policies  are  subject  to  frequent  change.  By 
"a  policy  of  law  enforcement"  is  meant  nothing  more  or  less  than  the 
determination  as  to  which  of  the  statutes  governing  the  sale  of  liquors 
and  prohibiting  gambling  and  prostitution  will  be  enforced  by  the  police, 
and  to  what  extent.  It  means  a  deliberate  choice  as  to  the  voiding  of 
statutes  or  the  enforcing  of  them.  It  means  the  usurpation  of  legisla- 
tive powers  and  functions  by  municipal  administrators.  It  means 
stating  to  the  11,000  policemen,  though  never  openly  or  in  writing,  that 
certain  of  the  statutes,  which  the  policeman  as  a  recruit  was  told  to 
regard  as  sacred,  must  not  be  enforced,  or  must  be  enforced  only  in  a 
" liberal"  manner.  In  other  words,  it  means  that  officials  elected  or 
appointed  to  enforce  without  fear  or  favor  every  law,  tell  their  sub- 
ordinates to  close  their  eyes  or  wink  at  violations  of  certain  of  the  statutes. 
The  policeman  of  more  than  a  few  years  of  service  in  New  York  has 
lived  to  see  these  policies  change  from  a  strict  enforcement  to  a  "personal- 
liberty"  kind  of  enforcement,  or  indeed  to  a  complete  non -enforcement. 
In  view  of  such  training,  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  how  an  individual 
policeman  may  create  his  own  policy  of  law  enforcement  as  affecting 
other  statutes,  and  collect  a  revenue  for  himself.  Such  a  policeman 
could  not  be  expected  to  regard  himself  as  any  more  corrupt,  to  say  the 
least,  than  his  superior  who  brings  about  the  nullification  of  a  statute 
for  political  reasons. 

A  police  commissioner  usually  comes  into  office  a  stranger  to  the  force. 
The  force  and  its  superior  officers  are  the  same  as  were  in  command  during 
the  preceding  administration.  The  new  commissioner  has  but  five  men 
in  his  entire  organization  upon  whom  he  can  entirely  depend,  or  from 
whom  he  can  expect  instant  and  absolute  loyalty,  namely,  his  four  depu- 
ties and  his  secretary.  These  officials,  because  of  the  magnitude  of  the 
administrative  problem  of  the  department,  are  of  necessity  burdened 
with  routine  duties,  which  deprive  them  of  much  time  for  field  observation. 
On  the  other  hand  the  commissioner  has  a  force  of  11,000  men,  some 
honest,  some  dishonest,  some  loyal,  some  disloyal,  some  good  workers, 
some  shirkers,  some  energetic  and  eager  to  serve  the  colors,  others  await- 
ing an  opportunity  to  betray  them,  but  all  standing  aside  gazing  and 
wondering  what  the  new  "boss"  is  going  to  do  with  triem;  what  are  to 
be  his  policies  of  law  enforcement;  who  are  his  political  masters;  to 
whom  they  may  themselves  go  for  political  preferment  or  political  pro- 
tection ;  how  much  the  commissioner  knows ;  how  easily  he  can  be  fooled ; 
and  last,  but  by  no  means  least,  how  long  he  will  remain.  To  the  faith- 
ful and  loyal  members  of  the  force,  the  last  puzzling  question,  how  long 


64  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK   CITY 

he  will  remain,  means  much.  If  it  could  but  be  answered  truthfully 
and  definitely,  a  police  commissioner  would  be  able  within  a  short  time 
to  rally  to  his  support  the  faithful  men  on  the  force,  armed  against  the 
betrayers.  Those  who  love  their  city  would  soon  drive  from  the  force 
those  who  have  from  time  to  time. brought  shame  upon  it,  but  since 
the  question  is  not  answered,  those  who  would  be  loyal  cannot  be  loyal. 
Those  who  would  join  the  commissioner  in  bringing  the  force  to  a  high 
standard  of  efficiency  can  under  present  conditions  do  so  only  at  their 
peril,  because  of  the  old  saying  in  police  circles,  "Commissioners  come 
and  commissioners  go,  but  the  system  lives  on  forever." 

When  I  say  the  "system"  I  am  not  referring  to  the  mythological 
so-called  "system,"  but  the  real  "system"  in  the  police  department, 
namely,  politics.  I  do  not  mean  politics  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term. 
The  present  commissioner  will  perhaps  tell  you  that  there  is  no  politics 
in  the  police  department  to-day.  By  that  he  means  that  under  the 
present  administration  political  influence  or  interference  cannot  operate 
for  or  against  any  member  of  the  force;  but  that  is  only  one  phase  of 
political  activity.  By  politics  in  police,  I  mean  essentially  the  political 
control  of  the  department.  That  control  you  have  under  your  present 
system  whether  you  have  a  reform  mayor  and  police  commissioner,  or 
a  Tammany  Hall  mayor  and  police  commissioner.  Political  factors  have 
the  same  grip  on  your  police  department  to-day  that  they  have  always 
had;  and  you  will  never  wrest  the  department  from  their  grip  until 
you  lengthen  and  secure  the  tenure  of  office  of  the  police  commissioner, 
and  take  that  officer  from  under  the  control  of  a  political  administration. 
I  do  not  say  that  to  reflect  upon  your  present  mayor,  because  I  believe 
the  city  of  New  York  has  never  had  a  more  honest  and  efficient  adminis- 
tration, not  only  of  the  police  department,  but  of  the  whole  city  govern- 
ment, than  it  has  to-day.  But  in  the  administration  of  police  you  must 
look  further  than  to-day.  You  must  remember  that  the  inspector, 
the  captain  who  wears  the  gold  shield  to-day,  does  not  pass  away  with 
Commissioner  Woods  or  Mayor  Mitchel,  but  goes  on  after  the  com- 
missioner; and  if  he  would  progress  in  the  police  department,  he  must 
keep  his  "weather  eye"  turned  toward  the  future.  No  matter  how  much 
he  loves  Commissioner  Woods,  no  matter  how  much  respect  he  has  for 
the  mayor,  no  matter  how  honest  he  may  be  in  his  heart,  he  must  always 
say  to  himself,  "I'd  like  to  be  loyal  to  this  fellow,  but  he'll  be  here  only 
a  short  time,  and  my  loyalty  to  him  may  mean  my  undoing  by  his  suc- 
cessor. "  The  inspector  of  police  who  has  seen  years  of  service  must  always 
keep  before  him  the  fact  that  the  next  commissioner  may  come  to  police 
headquarters  direct  from  the  office  of  his  political  master,  whose  chief 


POLICE  ADMINISTRATION'  65 

gangster  or  gunman  the  inspector  put  in  jail  at  the  direction  of  an  honest 
police  commissioner. 

To  have  a  successful  police  administration  it  is  necessary  to  have  an 
experienced  administrator  at  the  head  of  the  force,  and  to  have  the  force 
reflect  the  attitude  of  that  administrator,  the  commissioner.  Naturally, 
to  reflect  his  attitude  they  must  understand  him;  they  must  get  his 
point  of  view.  New  York's  police  force,  although  at  present  perhaps 
more  efficient  than  in  the  past,  has  not  yet  acquired  the  proper  point  of 
view.  The  old  "cop"  of  the  days  gone  by,  who  believed  his  chief  func- 
tion to  be  "keeping  out  of  trouble" — doing  as  little  as  possible  and 
performing  services  somewhat  like  a  night  watchman — has  no  place  in 
this  age  of  efficient  police  work.  The  policeman  of  to-day  must  be  of 
superior  intelligence,  and  must  understand,  if  he  is  to  be  efficient,  that 
he  is  a  social-service  agent  of  the  government.  He  must  acquire  knowl- 
edge of  those  who  live  or  are  active  in  the  neighborhood  he  patrols — 
not  with  the  idea  of  dictating  their  moral  standards  or  bulldozing  them 
into  obedience  to  the  law,  but  of  being  an  aid  to  them,  an  agent  of  the 
government  in  assisting  them.  Not  only  does  he  stand  for  the  criminal 
statutes  and  their  enforcement,  but  he  is  the  agent,  or  should  be,  of  every 
branch  of  the  city  government. 

Our  policemen  will  never  fully  appreciate  their  responsibilities,  will 
never  fully  understand  the  importance  of  their  position,  and  the  oppor- 
tunities for  good  that  go  with  it,  until  they  have  had  a  single  police 
commissioner  in  command  of  them  long  enough  to  secure  their  loyalty 
and  confidence,  and  to  inspire  them  with  a  point  of  view  which  will 
make  of  New  York's  police  the  greatest  force  for  social  good  in  the  world. 


FIRE  ADMINISTRATION 

ROBERT  ADAMSON 
Commissioner  of  the  Fire  Department 

THIS  city  last  year  celebrated  its  three-hundredth  birthday, 
while  in  a  few  weeks  now  we  are  to  celebrate  only  the 
fiftieth  birthday  of  the  New  York  fire  department  as  a  paid 
body.  There  is  great  significance  in  this  lapse  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  between  the  organization  of  the  city  itself  and  the 
establishment  of  a  paid  fire  department  to  protect  the  lives  and 
property  of  citizens.  It  is  a  fact  which  is  characteristic,  I  think, 
of  the  attitude  not  merely  of  the  people  of  the  city,  but  of  the 
people  of  America  as  a  whole  towards  protection  against  fire. 
Perhaps  this  attitude  accounts  for  the  fact  that  the  fire  loss  per 
capita  of  the  United  States  is  eight  times  that  of  European  coun- 
tries, and  that  this  fire  loss  constitutes  a  drain  upon  our  national 
resources  so  great  as  to  be  little  short  of  a  national  scandal.  We 
seem  to  have  been  extraordinarily  slow  in  conceiving  of  fire  as 
something  to  be  organized  against  or  prevented.  The  fire  preven- 
tion bureau  in  this  city  is  only  three  years  old,  and  fifty  years  ago 
it  was  only  against  great  resistance  that  our  paid  fire  department 
was  organized.  Many  good  citizens  thought  they  saw  in  the  plan 
a  threat  against  the  very  pillars  of  the  community.  There  are 
always  perfectly  well-meaning  citizens  to  oppose  any  change  in 
the  existing  order.  These  citizens  seem  to  have  been  possessed 
with  the  primitive  notion  that  putting  out  fires  was  the  task  of  the 
neighborhood  and  not  of  the  organized  government.  The  bill 
creating  the  paid  fire  department  in  New  York  had  to  be  fought 
all  the  way  to  the  court  of  appeals  before  the  commissioners 
appointed  by  Governor  Fenton  to  organize  the  department  could 
begin  their  work. 

The  history  of  the  paid  fire  department  is  short  enough  to  be 
encompassed  within  the  experience  of  many  living  men.  It  was 
with  curious  interest  that,  in  looking  through  the  minutes  of  the 
meeting  of  the  first  board  of  fire  commissioners  at  fire  headquarters 
the  other  day,  I  noted  there  the  fact  that  at  the  third  meeting  of 

(66) 


FIRE  ADMINISTRATION  67 

the  board  a  communication  was  received  from  the  Hon.  Chauncey 
M.  Depew,  then  secretary  of  state,  recommending  some  man  for 
a  minor  position  in  the  department. 

The  fire  department  of  to-day  is  a  very  different  organization 
from  that  of  which  the  first  board  of  fire  commissioners  assumed 
control  fifty  years  ago.  It  was  a  department  of  heroic  traditions 
to  be  sure,  traditions  which  had  been  handed  down  through 
generations  of  the  volunteer  force,  traditions  which  inspire  the 
firemen  of  to-day.  But  in  personnel,  in  discipline,  in  equipment, 
in  methods,  in  training  and  in  effectiveness  there  can  be  no  com- 
parison between  the  two. 

At  present  the  department  is  in  a  transitional  stage.  The  motor 
is  supplanting  the  horse,  the  high-pressure  water  system  is  sup- 
planting the  fire  engine,  and  the  gasoline  pumping  engine  is  sup- 
planting the  old-fashioned  steam  engine.  Soon  all  of  the  pictur- 
esqueness  and  thrill  of  fires  will  be  gone.  Only  to-day  we  opened 
bids  for  six  new  gasoline  pumping  engines.  This  is  the  new  type 
of  fire  engine,  the  fuel  for  which  is  gasoline  instead  of  coal.  It  is 
entirely  different  in  appearance  from  the  steam  fire  engines  which 
all  of  us  have  been  accustomed  to  see  at  fires,  and  is,  in  fact,  nothing 
more  than  a  great  gasoline  pump.  We  have  only  one  such  engine 
in  the  fire  department  now.  It  is  highly  improbable  that  another 
steam  fire  engine  will  be  bought.  All  the  pumping  engines  pur- 
chased for  use  in  the  future  will  be  of  the  new  type. 

Already  in  the  high-pressure  water  district,  which  covers  all  of 
Manhattan  Island  south  of  Thirty-fourth  street  and  the  busy 
central  section  of  Brooklyn  and  Coney  Island,  you  can  see  a  great 
fire  fought  without  any  engine  at  all.  The  water  is  pumped  by  a 
great  engine  at  the  riverside,  perhaps  a  mile  and  a  half  or  two  miles 
away.  The  fire  companies  in  these  districts  respond  to  alarms 
without  engines,  the  hose  is  stretched  to  the  high  pressure  hydrants, 
and  the  pumping  station,  which  has  already  received  the  alarm, 
supplies  the  needed  pressure.  As  the  fire  progresses  the  pressure 
can  be  regulated  by  telephone  at  the  will  of  the  uniformed  officer 
in  charge.  A  few  weeks  ago  I  was  present  at  a  big  fire  in  Murray 
street  at  which  many  companies  worked,  but  not  a  single  steam 
engine  was  present.  The  street  was  almost  as  quiet  as  it  ordiiiarilv 
is  at  noonday,  and  many  of  the  usual  evidences  of  a  fire  were 


68  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

absent.  But  for  the  network  of  hose  in  the  street,  the  crowds 
that  had  gathered  and  the  smoke  pouring  from  the  top  of  the 
building,  you  could  not  have  told  that  a  fire  was  in  progress. 
On  the  first  of  this  month  I  was  present  at  another  third-alarm 
fire  in  East  Seventeenth  street,  at  which  fifteen  separate  com- 
panies worked,  and  there  was  not  a  piece  of  horse-drawn  appa- 
ratus there.  Ladders  are  no  longer  raised  by  muscular  power; 
they  are  raised  by  the  touch  of  a  lever,  and  six  hundred  pounds 
pressure  in  a  water  main  is  now  supplied  without  a  fire  engine. 

There  has  been  a  corresponding  improvement  in  the  mechanical 
fire  equipment  inside  of  buildings.  The  cellar  pipes,  which 
can  be  extended  to  almost  any  length  to  reach  difficult  fires  in 
cellars;  standpipes,  upon  which  the  firemen  rely  in  fighting  fires 
in  tall  buildings;  automatic  sprinklers,  perhaps  the  most  effective 
mechanical  device  for  extinguishing  and  checking  fires  which  has 
yet  been  perfected;  fire  walls  with  doors  which  close  automat- 
ically— these  are  some  of  the  modern  devices  for  the  protection 
of  buildings. 

There  has  been  a  vast  advance  also  in  the  training  of  officers. 
They  are  becoming  more  scientific,  and  consequently  more 
efficient.  Just  as  the  old  flat-footed  "cop"  is  disappearing  from 
the  police  department,  so  is  the  old  type  of  fireman  disappearing 
from  the  fire  department.  Fire  fighting  is  ceasing  to  be  a  matter 
of  brute  force,  and  becoming  more  and  more  a  matter  of  science 
and  good  equipment.  This  is  largely  the  result  of  the  fire  college 
at  fire  headquarters.  In  classes  of  forty,  every  officer  in  the 
fire  department  has  now  taken  a  full  course  in  the  fire  college. 
They  are  lectured  to  by  experts  in  the  various  branches  of  their 
work.  Every  practical  problem  which  may  confront  an  officer 
at  a  fire  is  the  subject  of  instruction  at  this  college.  This  year 
the  last  class  of  officers  to  go  through  the  college  finished  their 
course.  We  are  now  beginning  over  and  the  officers  are  taking 
post-graduate  courses.  Fire  chiefs  from  many  American  cities 
have  come  here  and  entered  this  college.  There  is  never  a  time 
when  there  are  not  two  or  three  fire  chiefs  in  the  class. 

The  new  men  who  come  into  the  department  receive  careful 
training  by  a  veteran  and  experienced  officer,  Chief  Larkin. 
They  are  taught  how  to  use  the  modern  implements  for  fire 


FIRE  ADMINISTRATION  69 

fighting;  they  are  seasoned  to  smoke  and  to  heat;  they  are 
taken  up  to  the  roof  of  the  old  headquarters  building,  six  stories 
above  ground,  and  taught  how  to  let  themselves  down  by  pulleys 
at  the  end  of  a  rope;  they  jump  into  nets;  they  rescue  each 
other,  and  they  rescue  " Mulligan,"  the  famous  lay  figure  of 
the  recruit  school,  who  has  been  rescued  by  more  men  than  any 
other  character  in  New  York.  We  have  also  up  at  the  fire  head- 
quarters a  concrete  building,  fitted  out  with  all  the  modern 
appliances  for  fire  extinguishment,  automatic  sprinklers  and  the 
like,  and  this  little  building  plays  an  important  part  in  the  train- 
ing of  the  recruits. 

One  of  the  most  marked  results  of  the  training  of  officers  is 
the  decrease  in  the  amount  of  water  used  at  fires.  Officers  are 
now  taught  that  water  may  do  as  "much  harm  as  fire  itself,  and 
last  year  the  amount  of  water  used  at  fires  was  scarcely  more 
than  half  that  used  in  former  years. 

The  average  loss  per  fire  is  being  reduced.  Last  year  the  per 
capita  loss  in  this  city  was  the  lowest  of  any  year  in  the  history 
of  the  city  save  one.  The  fire  loss  for  the  first  three  months  of 
this  year  was  nearly  $900,000  less  than  that  for  the  first  three 
months  of  last  year,  a  reduction  of  about  40%.  But  for  ex- 
ceptional conditions  prevailing  last  year — the  abnormal  business 
depression  resulting  from  the  war,  an  abnormally  cold  .winter, 
and  an  abnormally  dry  summer  which  resulted  in  nearly  five 
hundred  street  and  brush  fires  in  the  suburbs, — it  is  the  confident 
belief  of  Chief  Kenlon  that  all  records  both,  in  the  number,  of 
fires  and  in  the  total  loss  would  have  been  lowered  last  year. 

As  it  was,  the  total  fire  loss  last  year  was  less  than  that  for  any 
year  since  1907  save  two.  The  total  fire  loss  in  the  United  States 
and  Canada  last  year  was  the  greatest  in  the  history  of  those 
countries  save  alone  the  three  years  in  which  the  great  Baltimore, 
San  Francisco  and  Chelsea  conflagrations  occurred.  During  the 
five  months  immediately  following  the  declaration  of  war  in 
Europe  the  increase  in  the  number  of  fires  and  in  the  loss  was 
especially  noticeable.  In  the  month  of  November  there  was  an 
increase  in  the  fire  loss  in  the  United  States  and  Canada  of 
$6,000,000  as  compared  with  the  year  before,  and  in  December  an 
increase  of  $7,000,000.  In  this  city  alone  during  two  months 


70  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

of  the  fall  there  was  an  increase  of  1,360  in  the  number  of  fires. 
The  connection  between  the  business  depression  resulting  from 
the  war  and  this  increase  in  the  fire  loss  is  beyond  question. 

The  first  important  order  which  I  issued  after  becoming  fire 
commissioner  was  one  directing  that  one  man  from  each  of  the 
295  fire  companies  in  the  city  be  detailed  to  make  housekeeping 
inspections  of  buildings.  The  fire  prevention  bureau  had  an 
accumulation  of  thirteen  thousand  "complaints  on  January  1  of 
last  year.  Each  one  of  these  complaints  represented  an  alleged 
dangerous  condition  requiring  correction,  how  dangerous  we  had 
no  means  of  telling.  I  therefore  determined  upon  the  house- 
keeping inspections  by  the  uniformed  force.  These  inspections 
were  not  intended  to  furnish  the  basis  for  fire  prevention  orders, 
but  the  firemen  were  to  see  that  rubbish  was  not  permitted  to 
accumulate,  that  all  fire  appliances  in  buildings  were  kept  in 
good  condition  and  ready  for  use  in  case  of  fire;  that  exits  were 
not  blocked,  that  doors  of  factories  and  other  establishments 
opened  outward,  that  "No  Smoking"  signs  were  displayed,  and 
that  other  undesirable  superficial  conditions  were  called  to  the 
attention  of  owners  and  rectified.  More  than  a  million  and  a 
quarter  of  inspections  were  made  by  these  firemen  last  year,  and 
they  issued  156,000  verbal  corrective  orders.  Wherever  they 
found  a  dangerous  or  serious  condition  they  reported  it  to  the 
fire  commissioner.  The  constant  visits  of  these  firemen  and 
their  friendly  suggestions  are  welcomed  by  citizens.  Their 
presence  is  a  constant  reminder  to  owners  and  others  to  exercise 
care,  and  I  believe  that  the  effect  of  these  inspections  in  a  few 
years  will  be  shown  in  a  great  reduction  in  the  number  of  fires 

I  felt  that  in  this  force  of  five  thousand,  all  of  them  practical 
men,  there  must  be  a  fund  of  experience  which  could  be  of 
immense  value  to  the  fire  commissioner.  Accordingly,  last 
summer,  I  announced  the  offer  of  a  medal  to  the  member  of  the 
fire  department  who  during  the  year  made  the  best  suggestion 
for  the  management  of  the  force.  I  have  received  literally  hun- 
dreds of  suggestions,  and  the  percentage  of  good  ones  has  been 
extremely  high;  in  fact,  my  embarrassment  has  been  in  finding 
the  time  to  put  these  suggestions  into  effect.  The  suggestions 
which  have  been  offered  show  that  the  men  are  thinking  about 


FIRE  ADMINISTRATION  71 

their  work,  that  the  result  of  their  training  is  making  itself  felt, 
and  that  they  are  really  alive  to  the  new  spirit  in  the  department. 

Three  months  ago  we  added  to  the  fire-fighting  force  a  rescue 
squad  composed  of  two  officers  and  eight  men.  It  is  located  in 
a  company  down  in  Great  Jones  street,  convenient  to  the  busy 
down-town  district,  to  the  shipping  center  and  the  tenement 
district.  The  company  responds  to  fires  on  special  call  in  a  spe- 
cially designed  wagon,  which  carries  all  forms  of  rescue  apparatus 
needed  at  a  fire — pulmotors,  lungmotors,  life  lines,  ladders,  smoke 
helmets,  and  a  mechanical  device  for  cutting  iron  or  steel  bars. 
This  device  is  intended  for  such  an  emergency  as  was  presented 
at  the  Equitable  Building  fire,  when,  as  you  may  remember,  the 
president  of  the  safe  deposit  company  was  imprisoned  behind  a 
steel  grated  door  for  nearly  two  hours,  in  full  view  of  everybody 
in  the  street,  while  firemen  hacked  and  sawed  away  desperately 
to  liberate  him.  The  rescue  squad  could  have  liberated  this  man 
inside  of  three  minutes. 

We  are  now  studying  the  question  of  extending  the  length  of 
fire  ladders.  Although  we  have  the  tallest  buildings  in  the  world, 
our  truck  companies  use  shorter  ladders  than  are  used  by  fire- 
men in  London,  where  the  buildings  are  much  lower  in  height. 
In  some  cities  devices  have  been  tried  for  clearing  smoke  out  of  a 
building  and  driving  it  ahead  of  the  firemen  so  as  to  enable  them 
to  get  nearer  the  fire.  This  is  undoubtedly  a  development  of 
the  future.  The  smoke-helmet  squad  has  helped  us  tremendously 
along  this  line  already,  but  devices  may  be  perfected  which  will 
render  unnecessary  the  risk  of  sending  firemen  in  masks  into 
dense  smoke.  The  possibility  of  development  along  mechanical 
lines  in  fire  departments  is  almost  limitless.  I  know  of  no  field 
more  promising  for  the  inventive  and  resourceful  mind.  It  may 
not  be  wholly  fanciful  to  foresee  the  time  when  great  fires  will 
be  fought  and  extinguished  without  the  use  of  water  at  all. 

The  present  fire  department  has  grown  up  from  the  village 
days  of  New  York  city,  with  fire  houses  located  sometimes  where 
they  were  needed,  sometimes  where  a  politician  had  a  piece  of 
land  to  sell,  and  in  the  case  of  the  older  houses,  without  reference 
to  the  modern  needs  of  the  city.  Most  of  the  city  fire  houses  are 
located  according  to  the  needs  of  the  city  seventy-five  or  a  hun- 


72  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

dred  years  ago.  Now  motorization  has  come  in  and  made  all 
the  more  urgent  the  necessity  for  a  survey  of  the  location  and 
distribution  of  the  force,  and  for  such  changes  as  modern  condi- 
tions render  possible  and  expedient.  Such  a  survey  we  have 
made  within  the  past  year  and  a  half.  I  appointed  a  board  of 
officers,  and  together  we  studied  the  field.  As  a  result  we  were 
able  to  discontinue  nine  companies  and  to  re-locate  them  in  new 
territory  where  they  were  needed. 

On  January  1  of  last  year  there  were  twenty  new  companies 
to  be  organized.  The  new  houses  were  just  about  completed. 
If  was  expected  that  the  commissioner  would  have  to  ask  the 
board  of  estimate  for  the  money  for  the  men  for  these  companies — 
a  total  of  about  $400,000.  By  the  survey  which  I  have  mentioned, 
by  the  revocation  of  details,  and  by  other  economies  I  was  able 
to  provide  for  the  organization  of  the  entire  twenty  companies 
without  increasing  the  budget  a  dollar,  but  on  the  contrary 
decreasing  it  by  $65,000.  Therefore,  we  have  been  able  not  only 
to  save  the  city  almost  $500,000,  but  to  distribute  the  force  in  such 
a  way  as  to  make  it  much  more  efficient.  We  have  companies 
in  the  department  which  respond  to  less  than  ten  fires  a  month. 
It  is  an  exceedingly  busy  company  which  responds  to  as  many  as 
two  or  three  fires  a  day.  The  average  per  company  for  the  city 
would  probably  be  between  20  and  25  fires  per  month. 

I  might  mention  a  great  many  other  things  which  I  have  in  view 
for  the  development  of  the  force  and  which  I  am  working  out  with 
Chief  Kenlon  and  his  splendid  aides.  We  are  to  introduce  in  a 
short  time  a  new  system  of  physical  exericses  for  the  men,  to  be 
followed  out  fifteen  minutes  each  day  in  the  fire  houses.  At 
present  a  very  high  physical  standard  is  required  of  the  men  upon 
entering  the  department,  but  in  many  of  the  less  active  companies, 
where  the  runs  are  infrequent,  the  men  become  short-winded  and 
too  stout.  We  have  prepared  a  brief  manual  of  physical  exercises 
which  is  to  be  part  of  the  daily  routine  of  each  company.  The 
purpose  is  to  keep  the  men  in  good  condition.  Another  thing 
which  we  have  in  view  is  a  new  method  of  differentiating  between 
the  excellent  fireman  and  the  one  who  shirks.  At  present  the 
excellent  fireman,  who  goes  wherever  his  commander  sends  him, 
who  takes  the  line  right  up  to  the  fire  and  holds  it  there  no  matter 


FIRE  ADMINISTRATION  73 

what  the  danger  and  the  risk,  who  takes  big  chances  with  his 
life,  and  who,  under  all  circumstances,  is  relied  upon  by  his  captain 
to  do  his  work  faithfully,  stands  upon  precisely  the  same  footing 
as  the  shirker  who  cannot  be  relied  upon  and  who  is  continually 
offering  excuses  as  to  why  he  did  not  do  something  he  should  have 
done.  In  every  company  there  are  three  or  four  men  who  are  the 
salt  of  the  company,  who  bear  the  brunt  of  the  work  and  the 
danger,  and  these  men  are  perfectly  well  known  to  the  captains, 
to  the  battalion  chiefs  and  the  other  high  officers.  The  shirkers 
are  also  perfectly  well  known.  Yet  it  is  perfectly  possible  at 
present  for  the  two  men  to  enter  a  civil  service  examination  upon 
precisely  the  same  footing,  and  if  the  shirker  happens  to  have  a 
little  better  education  than  the  other  man,  and  has  managed 
to  escape  charges,  it  is  entirely  possible  for  him  to  come  out  ahead 
of  the  good  man  in  the  examination.  We  are  working  out  now  a 
system  of  ratings  for  firemen  by  which  the  proper  grading  will  be 
given  to  the  best  man,  and  the  civil  service  commission  has  prom- 
ised to  recognize  those  ratings  in  the  examination.  I  believe  that 
nothing  that  could  be  done  in  connection  with  the  records  of 
firemen  will  do  more  to  stimulate  and  encourage  the  good  fireman 
than  this.  Such  a  system  will  serve  to  separate  the  good  man 
from  the  shirker,  whereas  at  present  they  all  stand  upon  a  dead 
level. 

In  all  of  these  problems,  as  I  have  said,  I  have  had  the  splendid 
help  of  Chief  Kenlon  and  other  experienced  officers  of  the  fire 
department.  The  city  is  exceedingly  fortunate  in  having  as  the 
head  of  the  uniformed  force  a  man  who  has  come  up  through  the 
ranks,  filling  in  turn  every  grade  and  every  position  in  the  depart- 
ment from  the  bottom  to  the  top.  He  is  a  man  not  only  of  prac- 
tical experience,  but  of  scientific  education  and  training,  an 
engineer  and  a  general.  With  the  aid  of  these  men  it  is  my  hope 
that  before  the  end  of  the  present  administration  we  shall  be  able 
to  make  tremendous  strides  in  putting  the  fire  department 
forward  in  all  branches  of  training,  equipment  and  practise. 

This,  in  brief,  is  the  work  of  the  uniformed  force,  the  fire 
fighters.  The  fire  department  includes  many  other  activities. 
For  example,  we  have  a  fire  prevention  bureau  with  a  force  of 
more  than  200  men.  The  work  of  this  bureau  is  divided  into 


74  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

several  branches.  First,  there  is  a  division  of  fire  appliances, 
which  inspects  buildings  and  recommends  orders  for  the  installa- 
tion of  necessary  fire  extinguishing  equipment.  Next,  there  is  a 
division  of  public  assembly,  which  consists  of  a  force  of  men 
engaged  in  inspecting  theaters,  moving-picture  theaters,  dance 
halls  and  places  of  public  assembly  generally.  Every  theater, 
every  moving-picture  place  and  every  dance  hall  has  to  have  a 
clean  bill  of  health  from  the  fire  department  before  the  licensing 
authorities  will  issue  them  permits.  Next,  there  is  a  division 
of  combustibles,  which  bears  perhaps  the  greatest  responsibility 
of  all,  because  under  its  jurisdiction  comes  the  inspection,  regula- 
tion and  licensing  of  all  the  places  in  the  city  where  combustibles 
or  explosives  are  stored  and  the  examination  and  -licensing  of 
persons  who  handle  those  combustibles  and  explosives.  Last  year 
upwards  of  20,000  permits  were  granted  by  this  division.  Under 
the  law,  every  garage,  every  drugstore,  every  oil  storage  plant, 
every  dynamite  magazine,  every  chemical  establishment,  every 
film  exchange,  every  place  where  celluloid  is  stored  or  combustibles 
or  explosives  of  any  kind  are  sold,  must  be  inspected  by  this 
division.  When  we  consider  that  there  are  in  New  York,  used  in 
art  and  industry,  more  than  enough  explosives  to  destroy  the 
combined  armies  and  fleets  of  the  warring  European  nations,  some 
idea  of  the  magnitude  of  the  work  of  this  bureau  can  be  obtained. 
Recently  the  construction  of  the  subway,  requiring  as  it  does  the 
use  of  a  great  amount  of  dynamite  in  the  very  heart  of  the  city, 
has  placed  a  great  responsibility  upon  this  bureau.  The  greatly 
increased  use  of  gasoline,  not  only  by  automobiles,  but  in  industry 
generally,  has  also  increased  our  work.  Perhaps  it  is  not  generally 
known  that  one  of  the  greatest  hazards  we  have  is  represented 
by  moving-picture  film  exchanges.  These  films  are  not  only 
highly  combustible,  but  under  certain  conditions  highly  explosive. 
The  industry  is  comparatively  new  and  the  world  is  constantly 
learning  more  and  more  about  it.  Some  idea  of  the  great  danger 
involved  in  the  storage  of  films  is  conveyed  by  the  fact  that  last 
year  within  a  short  radius  of  New  York  city  moving-picture  film 
fires  causing  a  damage  of  nearly  $9,000,000  occurred. 

The  fire  prevention  bureau  is  only  a  little  more  than  three 
years  old.     It  was  created  as  a  result  of  the  great  Triangle  shirt- 


FIRE  ADMINISTRATION  75 

waist  fire  in  which  147  lives  were  lost.  Perhaps  the  public  supposed 
that  after  that  great  horror  and  the  public  sentiment  which  it 
aroused  it  would  not  be  difficult  for  the  new  fire  prevention  bureau 
to  secure  prompt  compliance  with  its  orders,  but  that  was  not  the 
case.  These  orders  were  resisted,  some  of  them  all  the  way  to  the 
court  of  appeals,  and  there  was  consequently  a  delay  of  more  than 
a  year  in  establishing  the  authority  of  the  bureau  in  respect  to 
certain  important  fire  extinguishing  devices.  It  was  only  in  May 
of  last  year  that  the  authority  of  the  fire  commissioner  to  order 
automatic  sprinklers  in  certain  buildings  was  upheld  by  the  court 
of  appeals. 

The  automatic  sprinkler  is  perhaps  the  most  effective  mechanical 
device  which  has  yet  been  perfected  for  the  extinguishment  of  fires. 
It  consists  of  water  pipes  stretched  along  the  ceiling  with  openings 
at  stated  intervals  through  which  the  water  may  flow  in  case  of 
fire.  The  water  is  liberated  when  the  heat  fuses  the  soft  metal, 
which  closes  the  openings,  the  fusing  taking  place  at  the  tempera- 
ture of  155  degrees.  The  history  of  automatic  sprinklers  in  this 
city  is  that  no  life  has  been  lost  in  a  building  in  which  they  were 
installed  and  that  no  great  fire  has  ever  occurrred  in  such  a  build- 
ing. The  sprinklers  either  extinguish  the  fire  entirely,  or  hold  it 
in  check  until,  the  firemen  arrive.  At  the  same  moment  that  the 
water  begins  to  flow  through  the  sprinklers,  an  automatic  alarm 
is  sent  in,  and  in  most  cases  the  firemen  find  the  fire  extinguished 
when  they  arrive. 

But,  as  I  have  said,  we  have  found  great  difficulty  in  securing 
compliance  with  orders  for  the  installation  of  sprinklers.  Early 
last  year  a  fire  occurred  in  a  great  factory  on  East  Ninety-ninth 
street,  a  fire  which  lasted  practically  the  whole  afternoon,  and 
engaged  the  services  of  something  like  twenty  fire  companies. 
In  the  fire  no  less  than  50  firemen  were  overcome.  Upon  investi- 
gation I  discovered  that  a  sprinkler  order  had  been  issued  against 
this  building  two  years  before  and  had  been  ignored.  We  at 
once  cast  about  to  see  whether  or  not  some  means  could  not  be 
found  for  penalizing  the  owner  of  that  factory  for  ignoring  our 
order.  I  was  finally  advised  by  Mr.  deRoode,  the  special  assistant 
corporation  counsel  assigned  to  the  fire  department,  that  under 
two  sections  of  the  charter  we  stood  a  good  chance  of  collecting 


76  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

at  law  the  cost  to  the  fire  department  of  extinguishing  that  fire. 
Those  two  sections  had  never  been  availed  of  by  the  city  before 
and  we  were  laughed  at  when  we  proposed  to  bring  suits  under 
them.  But  we  brought  suit  for  $1 ,500  and  those  who  laughed  were 
the  first  to  congratulate  us  when,  a  few  months  later,  the  appellate 
division  of  the  supreme  court,  by  unanimous  decision,  upheld  our 
contention.  The  very  next  day  another  firm  against  which  a 
similar  suit  had  been  brought  sent  its  representative  to  head- 
quarters with  a  check  covering  the  expense  of  the  fire  department 
in  that  particular  fire.  So  by  this  decision  there  was  placed  in  our 
hands  a  weapon  which  I  believe  will  be  tremendously  effective  in 
compelling  compliance  with  fire  department  orders.  The  princi- 
ple established  by  that  decision  was  that  the  fire  department  can 
collect  the  cost  of  extinguishing  fires  if  it  can  be  shown  that  the 
fire  was  caused  by  "wilful  or  culpable  negligence." 

Personally,  I  feel  that  this  principle  should  be  carried  further, 
that  the  law  should  provide  that  the  owner  of  a  building  may  collect 
for  damage  done  by  fire  from  the  person  responsible,  through 
carelessness  or  negligence,  for  starting  such  fire.  Under  the  Code 
Napoleon  the  man  upon  whose  premises  a  fire  starts  is  presump- 
tively at  fault,  and  the  burden  of  proof  is  upon  him  to  show  that  he 
was  not  responsible  for  causing  the  fire.  If  a  fire  .starts  upon  a 
man's  premises  and  is  communicated  to  the  premises  of  that  man's 
neighbor,  the  neighbor  can  bring  suit  for  damages  unless  the  man 
can  show  that  the  fire  was  due  to  no  fault  of  his  own  or  his  servants 
or  agents.  I  see  no  sound  reason  why  we  should  not  have  such  a 
law  here.  If  we  had,  I  feel  sure  that  the  number  of  fires  occurring 
in  this  city  would  go  down  amazingly  over  night.  If  men  have  to 
go  into  their  pockets  to  pay  the  cost  of  their  carelessness  and 
negligence,  you  may  be  sure  that  they  are  going  to  be  more  careful. 

In  the  work  of  the  fire  prevention  bureau  we  have  made  publicity 
and  education  a  foremost  feature.  We  have  sought  in  every  way 
possible  to  show  people  how  fires  occur;  through  what  acts  of 
carelessness  they  are  started  and  how  they  may  easily  be  prevented. 
We  feel  that  the  number  of  fires  which  are  not  preventable  is 
almost  negligible.  In  fact  it  can  scarcely  be  said  that  no  fire  is 
unpreventable  except  those  due  to  earthquake  or  lightning. 

Last  year  we  had  14,425  fires  in  this  city  and  of  this  number 


FIRE  ADMINISTRATION  77 

more  than  9,000,  or  exactly  64%,  occurred  in  places  in  which 
people  lived,  the  homes  of  the  people,  private  residences,  tene- 
ment houses,  hotels  and  boarding  houses.  And  they  occurred  from 
causes  which,  as  ascertained  by  our  fire  marshals  upon  investiga- 
tion, were  due  to  ordinary  acts  of  carelessness.  Of  these  fires 
1,674  occurred  in  cellars;  478  in  chimneys;  1,031  in  parlors  and 
dining  rooms;  357  in  closets;  189  in  bathrooms;  190  were  awning 
fires;  105  occurred  in  dumbwaiters  and  215  occurred  under  stoops, 
porches  and  in  areaways.  And  all  of  these  fires  were  carelessness 
fires. 

Investigation  by  our  fire  marshal  shows  that  carelessness  with 
cigars,  cigarettes  and  pipes  caused  1,342  fires;  carelessness  with 
candles  and  tapers,  523;  children  playing  with  matches  or  fire, 
755;  careless  use  of  matches,  287;  overheated  stoves,  boilers  and 
ranges,  958;  defective  insulation,  471;  bonfires,  brush  fires  and 
rubbish  fires,  1,491.  We  have  issued  thousands  of  circulars 
pointing  out  these  facts  and  warning  and  admonishing  the  people. 
It  is  exceedingly  difficult,  however,  to  impress  grown-up  people 
with  facts  like  these  until  they  have  been  hit  by  some  personal 
experience  of  their  own,  so  we  have  begun  with  the  rising  genera- 
tion. We  have  prepared  a  text  book  on  fire  prevention,  and 
through  the  co-operation  of  President  Churchill  and  Superintend- 
ent Maxwell  fire  prevention  is  now  being  taught  in  every  class  in 
the  public  schools  of  this  city.  It  is  our  hope  that  in  a  few  years, 
perhaps  even  this  year,  we  may  begin  to  reap  the  advantage  of  this 
training. 

This  indicates  the  great  task  which  is  before  the  fire  depart- 
ment— the  prevention  of  fires.  Fire  prevention  is  not,  as  many 
people  suppose,  merely  a  matter  of  fireproofing  buildings.  That 
is  fire  protection  which,  in  the  case  of  a  fire  occurring,  will  limit 
the  loss  of  property  and  the  loss  of  life.  But  almost  as  many  fires 
will  occur  in  fireproof  buildings  if  the  people  who  occupy  those 
buildings  are  careless  with  matches  and  lights  and  allow  rubbish 
and  combustible  materials  to  accumulate. 

It  is  the  great  task  of  the  next  decade  in  the  fire  department  to 
take  the  people  into  co-operation  in  the  prevention  of  fires.  We 
are  going  ahead  as  well  as  we  can  with  a  limited  force  to  make 
buildings  in  this  city  safe,  but  what  can  200  men  do  in  a  vast  city 


78  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

like  this  with  more  than  375,000  buildings,  and  a  population  of  six 
million?  It  would  take  years  and  the  complete  re-building  of 
many  parts  of  the  city  to  make  our  buildings  fireproof,  as  we 
understand  the  term  to-day.  And  even  when  that  work  is  done, 
its  effectiveness  will  be  lost  unless  the  people  themselves  co-operate. 
Fire  prevention  is  really  the  work  of  the  people  of  the  city.  A 
handful  of  inspectors  can  not  do  it  all.  I  should  like  to  see  every 
man,  woman  and  child  in  this  city  a  fire  prevention  aide,  and  when 
we  have  that  help  we  shall  have  such  a  reduction  in  fires  as  to 
enable  us  to  get  along  with  much  fewer  firemen  than  we  need 
to-day. 


DISCUSSION   OF  FIRE    ADMINISTRATION 

CLEMENT  J.  DRISCOLL 
Bureau  of  Municipal  Research 

A  Commissioner    Adamson    has  clearly  stated,   New  York's    fire 
department  has  within  the  last  few  years  advanced  to  a  higher 
point  of  efficiency  than  ever  before  attained.     The  officials  of  the 
department  have  made  the  scientific  training  of  the  men  an  essential  part 
of  their  program.     They  have  likewise  developed  a  system  of  fire  preven- 
tion inspections  through  the  use  of  civilian  inspectors  and  uniformed 
firemen,  and  have  secured  the  enforcement  of  the  department's  orders 
by  protecting  it  against  political  interference.      In  these  respects  the 
fire  departments  of  other  American  cities  have  not  been  so  progressive. 

In  New  York,  however,  and  in  most  American  cities  there  remains  to 
be  solved  a  problem  of  administration  vital  from  the  point  of  view  of 
both  efficiency  and  economy.  That  question,  which  puzzles  most  admin- 
istrators of  fire  departments,  concerns  the  hours  of  labor  of  firemen  and 
the  distribution  of  the  force  so  as  to  secure  the  best  results.  In  a  word, 
the  great  question  is,  what  shall  be  done  with  firemen  during  the  many 
hours  they  are  not  called  upon  to  perform  active  work? 

All  over  the  country  fire  departments  and  those  interested  in  them  are 
to-day  discussing  the  question  of  platoon  "systems.  Most  of  those  who 
have  studied  the  situation  are  agreed  that  the  present  so-called  continu- 
ous-service or  single-platoon  system  is  unfair  to  the  fireman  and  far 
from  satisfactory.  Most  fire  chiefs  are  opposed  to  any  change  from  the 
present  continuous-service  system  principally  because  of  the  increased 
cost  of  management  that  must  necessarily  come  with  a  change  of  platoon 
system.  They  likewise  argue  that  by  having  the  firemen  constantly 
under  their  control,  and  housed  under  the  barracks  system,  they  can 
secure  better  service.  Nevertheless,  the  firemen  of  America  who  are 
working  under  the  single-platoon  system  are  discontented,  and  their  dis- 
contentment is  not  conducive  to  efficient  service.  It  was  once  said  in  con- 
nection with  police,  and  with  a  great  deal  of  wisdom,  that  "a  contented 
force  is  an  efficient  force." 

Those  who  argue  for  a  continuance  of  the  present  system  contend  that 
its  justice  lies  primarily  in  the  fact  that  the  firemen  are  for  the  most 
part  idle,  and  are  called  into  action  only  occasionally.  This  is  true,  but 
in  this  very  fact  may  be  found  the  great  problem  of  fire  administration. 
During  the  year  1913  the  289  companies  of  New  York's  fire  department 

(79) 


80  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

responded  to  14,737  alarms,  which  means  that  each  company  averaged 
far  less  than  one  run  per  day  (.14  run  per  day).  During  the  same  year, 
as  against  14,737  alarms,  there  were  but  12,958  fires.  Some  idea  of  the 
amount  of  actual  service  performed  by  the  department  during  1913  can 
be  had  from  the  following  table: 

The  highest  number  of  runs  for  any  one  company  was  791. 

The  lowest  number  of  runs  for  any  one  company  was  1. 

Ill  companies  responded  to  less  than  100  (less  than  .27  alarms  per 

day). 
61  companies  responded  to  between   100  and   199   (.27    and   .54 

alarms  per  day). 
58  companies  responded  to  between  200  and  299   (between    .54 

and  .81  alarms  per  day). 
34  companies  responded  to  between  300  and  399   (between   .81 

and  1.08  alarms  per  day). 
11  companies  responded  to  between  400  and  499  (between  1.08 

and  1.36  alarms  per  day). 
10  companies  responded  to  between  500  and  599  (between  1.36 

and  1.63  alarms  per  day). 
1  company  responded  to  between  600  and  699  (between  1.63  and 

1.90  alarms  per  day). 
3  companies  responded  to  between  700  and  791   (between  1.90 

and  2.17  alarms  per  day). 

Although  I  have  given  considerable  study  to  the  question  I  am  not 
prepared  to  say  that  the  two-platoon  system  advocated  by  the  firemen 
throughout  the  country  would  if  adopted  give  the  relief  necessary.  Yet 
I  do  say  without  hesitation  that  some  system  must  be  devised  which  will 
permit  of  more  time  at  home  for  firemen,  and  more  time  for  recreation. 

But  with  better  working  conditions  as  to  hours  of  service  must  come 
a  system  which  will  provide  for  securing  a  greater  amount  of  active 
service  from  the  firemen,  and  which  will  make  impossible  entire  com- 
panies remaining  inactive  for  a  whole  year  without  responding  to  alarms. 
I  have  at  this  time  no  concrete  plan  to  offer,  but  I  believe  that  the 
following  plan,  suggested  by  Fireman  John  R.  Keefe,  of  New  York's 
department,  though  by  no  means  perfect  in  detail,  is  yet  worthy  of 
consideration,  and  should  unquestionably  be  experimented  with  in  some 
section  of  the  city. 

Plan  of  Organization  by  John  R.  Keefe 

Divide  New  York  city  into  16  districts,  each  district  to  contain  15  or 
16  companies,  engine  and  truck.  Centrally  located  in  each  such  district 


FIRE  ADMINISTRATION  81 

is  to  be  a  quarters  containing  1  battalion  chief  (to  be  in  charge),  2  foremen 
(captains)  and  18  men.  These  groups,  for  purposes  of  explanation,  will 
be  called  district  crews.  In  each  such  district  will  be  3  fast  automobiles, 
each  capable  of  accommodating  10  men,  with  one  or  two  scaling  ladders 
and  extinguishers  if  desired.  The  apparatus  and  quarters  now  in  use 
should  not  be  disturbed  in  the  slightest  and  companies  should  answer 
alarms  as  at  present,  but  the  crews  should  be  reduced  from  their  present 
number  (average  16)  to  a  minimum  strength  at  all  times  of  1  lieutenant, 
1  engineer,  and  3  firemen  for  each  engine  company,  and  1  lieutentant  and 
3  firemen  for  each  truck  and  hose  company. 

In  responding  to  alarms  these  otherwise  undermanned  companies  will 
be  augmented  by  a  captain  and  10  men,  in  2  automobiles,  from  district 
quarters,  making  the  actual  strength  of  the  4  companies  (the  usual  number 
that  respond  on  the  fire  alarm)  never  less  than  30  officers  and  men,  with 
a  captain  of  the  district  crew  in  charge.  The  district  crew  is  certain  to 
get  to  a  fire  before  a  company  could  get  water  on  even  as  now  manned. 
In  the  night,  when  most  large  fires  occur,  these  figures  would  be  increased 
from  four  to  eight  men.  There  would  remain  in  district  quarters  a 
minimum  crew  of  1  battalion  chief,  one  captain  and  8  men  to  respond  to 
a  second  alarm  from  the  same  fire  or  a  first  alarm  from  another  part  of 
the  same  district.  When  extraordinary  occasions  require,  the  process 
of  locating  now  in  practise  can  be  extended  to  district  crews. 

The  number  of  companies  in  each  district  and  the  number  of  districts 
in  the  city  can,  of  course,  be  changed  as  required;  those  given  are  tenta- 
tive, but  seem  to  originator  of  plan  about  right.  While  New  York  city 
is  large,  if  it  were  only  one-sixteenth  its  present  size  the  central  part  of 
it  would  be  no  very  great  distance  from  the  border. 

Take  the  territory  from  Tenth  street  to  the  Harlem  River  and  from 
Fifth  avenue  to  the  East  River  and  divide  it  into  2  districts,  one  from 
Tenth  street  to  Seventieth  street,  and  the  other  from  Seventieth  street 
to  the  Harlem  River.  Locate  district  crews  at  Fortieth  street  and  Third 
avenue,  and  One  Hundredth  street  and  Park  avenue,  and  no  point 
north  or  south  is  more  than  1^  miles  distant,  a  matter  of  3  minutes  with 
an  automobile  having  right  of  way,  and  much  less  east  and  west.  More- 
over, by  no  means  all  fires  would  be  on  the  extreme  edge  of  the  district. 
A  district  crew  station  at  Forty-first  street  and  Sixth  avenue  could  easily 
cover  all  the  territory  from  Twenty-third  street  to  Fifty-ninth  street  from 
river  to  river. 

Statistics  show  that  about  99%  of  the  department  is  idle  twenty-three 
hours  out  of  twenty-four,  and  never  in  its  history  has  20%  of  the  depart- 
ment's strength  been  busy  at  the  same  time  at  fires;  not  even  for  an  hour. 


82  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

During  1909  there  were  13,559  alarms  responded  to  in  New  York  city, 
1,122  of  these  were  false  or  unnecessary.     Of  the  remainder: 
7,629  were  extinguished  without  water. 
3,316  were  extinguished  with  1  engine  stream. 
768  were  extinguished  with  2  or  3  engine  streams. 
512  were  extinguished  with  high  pressure  on  first  alarm. 
212  were  second,  third  or  fourth  alarm  (153  were  seconds). 

The  problem  to  be  solved  is,  how  to  have  enough  men  and  apparatus 
in  the  required  place  at  the  right  time  w'ithout  overmanning  the  depart- 
ment, how  to  utilize  the  largest  possible  amount  of  energy  at  command. 
One  hundred  and  fifty  men  and  ten  pieces  of  apparatus  would  be  more 
than  sufficient  for  New  York  if  it  were  known  'in  advance  where  a  fire  was 
going  to  break  out.  Only  recently  between  the  hours  of  8  a.m.  one  day 
and  8  a.m.  the  next,  the  working  day  for  firemen,  not  a  single  alarm  was 
received.  New  York  city  did  not  need  a  fire  department  on  that  particular 
day. 

There  may  be  only  15  or  20  companies  out  of  237  in  New  York  city 
which  roll  during  some  stated  period;  probably  only  one  or  two,  perhaps 
none  at  all,  of  these  actually  perform  fire  duty  on  the  alarm  they  answer. 
In  1909,  8%  of  alarms  were  false  or  unnecessary,  and  88%  (10,945  to  be 
exact)  of  all  fires  in  New  York  were  extinguished  by  one  company,  and 
70%  of  these  without  water.  That  a  second  or  greater  alarm  in  a  district 
would  be  a  comparatively  rare  occurrence,  though  not  generally  thought 
so,  is  apparent  from  the  fact  that  only  212  occurred  in  all  New  York  in 
1909;  an  average  of  13  for  each  of  the  proposed  16  districts.  Some  would 
really  have  none,  some  more  than  their  share.  The  average,  however, 
is  only  about  one  a  month  per  district. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  some  companies  do  not  respond  to  an 
alarm  for  days  and  even  weeks;  instead  of  keeping  16  men  idle,  only  7 
at  the  outside  would  be  idle  under  this  plan.  There  are  at  least  50  com- 
panies in  New  York  city  that  do  not  average  20  runs  a  month;  these 
companies  are  now  manned  by  800  men.  Instead  of  having  800  men 
idle  when  there  are  no  fires  to  put  out,  under  this  plan  there  would  be  an 
extreme  of  only  350  idle.  It  should  be  remembered,  too,  that  when  these 
companies  respond  and  do  not  work,  7  men  to  a  company  are  as  good  as 
16  and  also,  a  company  does  not  work  at  more  than  20%  of  the  one-alarm 
fires  it  rolls  to. 

A  district  of  15  companies  of  16  officers  and  men  each,  with  10  engines 
and  5  trucks,  makes  240  officers  and  men.  The  same  companies  with 
district  crews  make  148  officers  and  men.  (This  includes  minimum 
strength  of  91  and  reserve  of  57  to  keep  companies  fully  manned).  At  any 


FIRE  ADMINISTRATION  83 

time  when  none  are  working  only  148  are  idle,  instead  of  240.  At  a  one- 
alarm  fire  in  a  given  district  at  least  30  respond  and  not  more  than  118 
are  idle  on  "day  off"  or  at  meals  under  this  plan.  Under  the  present 
system,  in  the  same  district,  with  the  same  fire,  probably  less  than  30 
would  be  working  and  at  least  210  would  be  idle  on  "day  off  "  or  at  meals. 

Even  if  three  alarms  came  simultaneously  in  one  district,  an  unheard- 
of  and  well-nigh  impossible  occurrence,  the  district  crew  could  readily 
handle  them  by  sending  3  crews  of  7  men  each  to  the  three  points  in  the 
district  from  which  alarms  were  received. 

Most  fires  are  extinguished  with  one  apparatus  and  crew;  all  companies 
in  excess  are  ordered  back  to  quarters.  Six  of  the  district  crew  can  return 
at  once  to  quarters  in  these  cases,  thus  increasing  the  reserve  at  district 
quarters  to  16,  if  no  alarm  has  been  received  in  the  interval,  and  to  9  if 
a  second  crew  has  left  district  quarters  before  the  first  returned.  The 
second  crew  would  have  been  6  men  and  a  captain,  leaving  a  battalion 
chief  and  two  men  in  district  quarters  as  the  lowest  possible  number. 
With  a  perfected  and  modern  fire-alarm  telegraph  system,  such  as  New 
York  city  will  have,  and  a  series  of  special  calls  arranged,  crews  can  be 
summoned  from  one  station  (alarm)  to  another  without  returning  to 
quarters  if  the  occasion  requires,  and  the  probability  of  district  quarters 
being  depleted  is  thus  reduced  to  the  lowest  possible  minimum.  When  it 
is  considered  that  there  were  but  13,550  alarms  in  1909,  an  average  of 
less  than  850  for  each  of  the  16  districts  (slightly  more  than  two  a  day), 
it  is  readily  seen  how  extremely  improbable  of  occurrence  are  the  contin- 
gencies just  cited. 

Occasionally  a  fire,  while  only  requiring  1  apparatus,  may  need  perhaps 
15  or  20  men.  Under  the  present  system  of  operating,  to  get  20  men  at 
least  3  crews  are  required.  This  means  that  2  pieces  of  apparatus  are 
unnecessarily  out  of  service,  and  some  part  of  the  city,  which  should  not 
be,  is  unprotected.  Under  this  plan  you  can  have  1  apparatus  and  20  to 
40  men  if  required. 

For  emergencies,  in  case  of  a  wreck,  sewer  disaster,  collapsed  building, 
explosion,  or  other  calamity,  unaccompanied  by  fire,  when  men  and  not 
apparatus  are  wanted,  a  large  draft  of  skilled  men  can  be  quickly  made 
without  putting  a  single  apparatus  out  of  service  or  materially  affecting 
the  protection  of  the  city  in  case  of  fire. 

Lessening  the  weight  of  apparatus  from  500  to  800  pounds,  by  means 
of  smaller  company  crews,  would  make  a  difference  in  the  speed  of  horses 
and  would  be  very  noticeable  in  a  long  run  in  answer  to  a  second  or  third 
alarm,  or  if  the  streets  are  heavy  with  snow  or  slush. 

At  no  time  in  recent  years,  if  ever,  have  there  been  three  large  fires  in 


84  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

New  York  city  at  the  same  time;  and  two  large  fires  at  one  time  have  not 
occurred  in  New  York  city  a  dozen  times  in  its  history. 

In  addition  to  the  great  saving  in  money,  better  fire  protection  than  is 
now  afforded  would  be  given. 

At  the  recent  explosion  at  Fiftieth  street  and  Lexington  avenue, 
apparatus  not  in  use  was  lying  around  out  of  service,  as  was  and  is  neces- 
sary to  get  the  men.  This  actually  decreased  the  fire  protection  of  the 
city.  Nothing  like  that  would  happen  Bunder  this  plan.  Each  district 
would  be  in  charge  of  a  battalion  chief,  who  would  have  1  captain,  8 
lieutenants,  6  engineers  and  42  men  in  excess  of  the  number  required  to 
man  companies.  This  is  a  very  liberal  allowance  to  provide  for  days  off, 
sick  leave,  meals,  etc.,  and  will  keep  companies  up  to  minimum  require- 
ments under  any  condition,  and  will  largely  exceed  those  requirements  at 
night.  What  are  known  as  "three-meal"  men  quite  frequently  do  not 
get  them;  a  "one"  or  "two-meal"  man  fares  no  better.  For  a  long  time 
officers  in  the  department  have  been  practically  living  in  quarters,  getting 
only  such  meals  as  they  send  out  for  or  can- snatch  "between  times." 
Under  this  plan  the  officers  and  men  would  be  better  treated  in  the  matter 
of  getting  their  days  off  and  meals  than  ever  before. 

While  it  is  realized  that  no  men  could  be  forced  out  of  the  department, 
no  additions  to  the  force  would  be  necessary  for  the  next  ten  years.  The 
deaths  and  retirements,  which  average  150  a  year,  would  reduce  the  force 
1,500  men  in  ten  years.  Allowing  for  the  natural  increase  in  the  city 
the  requirements  ten  years  hence  would  be  covered  by  the  allowance  for 
1911  (4,508). 

A  great  saving  in  the  pension  fund  would  also  be  accomplished,  and 
the  large  income  in  excess  of  the  requirements  of  the  fund  could  be  used 
as  a  basis  for  a  pension  fund  for  civil  employes  of  New  York  city  not  now 
provided  for.  At  the  present  time  the  fire  department,  police  department, 
health  department  and  school  teachers  have  a  pension  fund.  These 
constitute  more  than  80%  of  the  city  employes  and  it  seems  hardly  fair 
that  20%  should  be  left  out  when  private  corporations  and  railroads  are 
pensioning  faithful  employes. 

The  facts  stated  and  the  probable  or  possible  conditions  mentioned  are 
designed  to  show  how  much  enforced  idleness  there  now  is,  and  must 
necessarily  be,  in  the  fire  departments  of  all  large  cities  as  at  present 
operated.  To  reduce  this  idleness  to  the  lowest  possible  percentage  when 
there  is  nothing  to  do  and  utilize  the  greatest  possible  percentage  of  the 
force  when  there  is  something  to  do,  is  the  purpose  of  this  plan. 


FIRE  ADMINISTRATION  85 

COMPARISON  OF  COST  UNDER  EXISTING  AND  UNDER  PROPOSED  PLAN 


Positions. 

Allowance 
for  1911 

Required  under 
new  plan 

No. 

Cost 

No. 

Cost 

Chiefs          

1 

15 
47 
268 
371 
446 
3,360 

$10,000 
66,300 
155,000 
670,000 
779,100 
713,600 
4,368,500 

1 

24 
48 
400 
292 
1,799 

$15,000 

Deputy  Chiefs          

Battalion  Chiefs                       

79,200 
120,000 
840,000 
467,200 
2,338,700 

Foremen          

Assistant  Foremen        

Engineers 

Firemen  (Av   1  300)  

Totals 

4,508 

$6,762,600 

2,564 

$3,860,100 

DISTRIBUTION  UNDER  NEW  PLAN 


Chief 

Battal- 
ion 
Chiets 

Cap- 

tains 

Lieu- 
tenants 

Engi- 
neers 

Fire- 
men 

Totals 

165  Engineering  Companies 
74  Trucks  

•- 

•• 

•• 

165 

74 

165 

495 
222 

825 
296 

8  Hose 

8 

24 

32 

10  Boats  

20 

30 

100 

150 

16  District  Crews 

16 

32 

288 

336 

Reserve  

j 

8 

16 

133 

97 

670 

925 

Totals 



24 

48 

400 

292 

1,799 

2,564 

THE   DEPARTMENT  OF  CORRECTION 

KATHARINE   BEMENT   DAVIS 

Commissioner  of  the  Department  of  Correction 

History 

IN  various  forms  the  functions  of  a  department  of  correction 
have  been  exercised  since  the  earliest  settlement  of  Manhattan 
Island.  Sutton,  in  his  history  of  The  Tombs,  points  out  that 
jails,  penitentiaries,  bridewells  and  houses  of  correction  existed 
in  New  York  a  century  and  a  half  before  the  state,  and  were 
organized  and  reorganized  in  the  most  ancient  charters.  The  first 
building  used  for  a  jail  in  the  city  of  New  York  was  built  in  1642. 
The  first  house  of  correction,  called  a  bridewell,  in  1734,  and  the 
penitentiary,  located  first  at  Bellevue,  date  as  far  back  as  1816. 
The  Tombs,  so  called  from  its  resemblance  to  an  ancient  Egyptian 
tomb,  was  ready  for  occupancy  in  1838.  The  necessity  for  separat- 
ting  juvenile  offenders  from  hardened  criminals  was  recognized 
and  the  House  of  Refuge  was  the  outcome.  This  was  opened  in 
1825,  and  in  1851  was  transferred  to  its  present  site  on  Randall's 
Island. 

I  have  not  been  able  to  trace  in  detail  the  succession  of  officials 
who,  under  various  names,  have  controlled  the  correctional 
institutions  of  the  city,  but  as  far  back  as  1841  there  was  a  com- 
missioner of  the  almshouse  who  had  charge  of  both  charitable  and 
correctional  institutions.  Early  in  1849,  the  New  York  state 
legislature  passed  an  act  establishing  a  board  of  governors  to  have 
charge  of  the  correctional  and  charitable  institutions  of  the  city. 
They  were  ten  in  number  and  were  known  as  the  governors  of  the 
almshouse.  In  the  same  year  the  workhouse  was  established  by 
an  act  of  the  legislature.  The  report  issued  by  the  board  of 
governors  of  the  workhouse  appeared  in  1850,  and  covered  the 
activities  of  the  preceding  year.  This  board  controlled  such 
diverse  institutions  as  the  almshouse,  Bellevue  Hospital,  hospitals 
on  Blackwell's  Island,  the  city  prison,  children  at  nurse,  the  colored 
home,  the  colored  orphan  asylum,  the  lunatic  asylum,  the  peniten- 
tiary, the  penitentiary  hospital,  Randall's  Island  and  the  work- 
house. They  also  had  charge  of  the  department  of  outdoor  poor. 
They  appointed  the  heads  of  each  institution,  but  these  heads 

(86) 


CHARITIES  AND   CORRECTION  87 

appointed  their  own  subordinates  and  were  responsible  for  their 
good  conduct. 

At  this  time,  the  penitentiary  received  those  committed  from 
the  courts  for  the  more  serious  offenses.  The  workhouse  was 
originally  designed  to  meet  the  need  of  compelling  to  work  those 
able-bodied  persons  who  were  seeking  refuge  as  vagrants  in  the 
almshouse,  and  the  first  inmates  of  the  workhouse  were  received 
not  directly  from  the  courts  but  by  transfer  from  the  almshouse. 

In  reading  the  reports  of  the  board  of  governors  for  the  early 
years,  one  might  almost  be  reading  from  reports  written  at  the 
present  time.  In  discussing  both  penitentiary  and  workhouse, 
there  is  complaint  of  overcrowding  of  the  institutions,  of  lack  of 
classification,  of  the  danger  of  putting  together  hardened  criminals 
and  first  offenders,  of  the  greater  difficulty  in  controlling  and  re- 
forming women,  of  the  need  of  supplying  a  greater  amount  of 
labor,  and  an  interesting  discussion  of  the  desirability  of  payment 
of  wages  to  those  employed  in  productive  labor.  As  far  back  as 
1850,  the  experiment  was  tried  in  the  workhouse  of  paying  for 
labor  in  accordance  with  a  sliding  scale  ranging  from  thirty-seven 
and  a  half  cents  to  sixty  cents  per  day.  In  1851  the  rate  schedule 
was  reduced  fifteen  cents  per  diem  in  order  to  discourage  repeaters. 
Apparently  the  experiment  did  not  work  out  satisfactorily.  It 
is  noted  that  men  who  have  accumulated  through  industry  a  sum 
of  money  are  apt  to  go  out  and  squander  it  and  then  seek  re-com- 
mitment in  order  to  replenish  their  purses.  After  a  few  years,  the 
experiment  was  apparently  given  up,  for  in  later  reports  no  men- 
tion is  made  of  payment  to  prisoners. 

I  have  not  been  able  to  find  complete  files  of  the  annual  reports, 
but  for  the  ten  years  preceding  the  Civil  War  there  is  frequent 
mention  of  the  fight  made  by  correctional  officials  against  venereal 
disease,  particularly  among  women.  What  amounts  to  a  recom- 
mendation for  an  indeterminate  sentence  in  the  case  of  those  so 
afflicted  is  put  forward,  but  I  cannot  find  that  it  was  ever  acted 
on.  The  charge  is  made  in  this  connection  that  women  of  the 
street  commit  themselves  to  get  cured  of  a  venereal  disease,  and 
that  when  cured  their  companions  in  guilt  apply  for  writs  of 
habeas  corpus.  In  1851,  359  women  were  discharged  in  this  way. 
For  several  successive  years,  the  abuses  of  the  writ  of  habeas 


88  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

corpus  are  cited  in  the  reports.  In  1853,  Dr.  Sanger  was  appointed 
physician  to  the  hospital  on  Blackwell's  Island,  and  it  is  interesting 
that  his  history  of  prostitution  is,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  first  history 
on  this  subject  in  the  English  language. 

Apparently  contract  labor  in  both  workhouse  and  penitentiary 
was  in  vogue  in  the  later  fifties.  In  1861,  the  workhouse  report 
mentions  the  fact  that  two  contracts  in  the  workhouse,  one  for  hoop 
skirts  and  the  other  for  military  caps,  "bring  in  great  revenues — the 
total  receipts  for  contracts  for  the  year  amounting  to  $8,542.92 ! 

In  1860,  the  New  York  state  legislature  passed  an  act  creating 
in  the  city  and  county  of  New  York  the  department  of  charities 
and  correction  and  abolishing  the  board  of  governors  of  the  alms- 
house.  Four  commissioners  were  appointed  for  terms  of  five 
years.  The  reports  of  the  commissioners  during  the  Civil  War 
are  brief.  The  attention  of  the  citizens  was  naturally  directed 
to  the  great  conflict  and  interest  in  matters  of  crime  diminished. 
The  great  falling  off  of  the  number  of  inmates  in  all  the  correct- 
ional institutions  is  noted,  but  reports  state  that  the  number  of 
women  committed  increased.  During  the  latter  years  of  the 
Civil  War,  men  who  violated  laws  were  frequently  given  the 
option  of  commitment  to  penal  institutions  or  enlistment,  and 
many  of  them  chose  the  latter.  I  have  the  word  of  a  distinguished 
citizen  of  New  York,  who  at  the  age  of  nineteen  was  an  army 
officer,  to  the  effect  that  the  men  of  this  class  who  lived  and  served 
for  at  least  a  year  became  a  most  efficient  fighting  force. 

In  the  reports  of  1 864  and  1 865  quite  severe  criticism  is  made  of 
the  system  of  prison  discipline.  The  penitentiary  is  called  a 
"school  of  vice,"  and  penitentiary  methods  are  termed  "unwise 
and  inefficient  treatment."  In  1866  an  appeal  to  the  public  is 
made  to  deal  with  causes  rather  than  with  effects  and  attention 
is  called  to  the  defective  education  of  the  children  of  the  city,  and 
the  growth  of  the  dependent  and  delinquent  classes.  In  1870 
the  local  government  of  New  York  city  was  reorganized  and  the 
number  of  commissioners  of  charities  and  correction  was  changed 
from  four  to  five,  but  in  1875  the  number  of  commissioners  had 
been  reduced  to  three. 

During  the  period  between  1870  and  1896,  at  which  latter  date 
the  department  of  correction  was  separated  from  the  department 


CHARITIES  AND   CORRECTION  89 

of  charities,  many  improvements  were  made  in  the  various  institu- 
tions :  district  prisons  were  rebuilt  and  added  to ;  the  shops  were 
increased  in  number;  the  overflow  from  workhouse  and  peniten- 
tiary was  taken  care  of  on  Hart's  Island  and  later  on  Riker's 
Island;  classification  was  carried  out  to  the  extent  of  establishing 
a  reformatory  school  in  1902  for  the  workhouse  boys  under  twenty- 
one  years  of  age ;  salaries  were  increased,  and  a  greater  number  of 
women  were  employed  to  look  after  the  women  prisoners;  added 
cell  accommodations  were  built  at  the  penitentiary.  But  with 
all  these  improvements,  there  is  still  the  complaint  of  overcrowding, 
lack  of  industrial  employment,  and  ineffective  results.  Back  in 
the  sixties,  grand-jury  investigations  reported  adversely  on  the 
crowded  conditions,  particularly  in  the  city  prison.  On  the 
completion  of  the  new  city  prison  at  Centre  and  Franklin  streets 
in  1903,  it  was  supposed  that  provision  was  made  for  some  time 
to  come  for  the  group  of  prisoners  quartered  here,  but  this  belief 
was  ill-founded.  In  a  very  few  years,  the  complaint  of  over- 
crowding begins  again.  With  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  of 
1894  contract  work,  which  had  given  occupation  and  furnished 
a  source  of  revenue  to  the  city,  was  abolished.  The  "state  use" 
system  was  introduced  and  the  labor  of  prisoners  in  the  city 
institutions  had  to  be  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  articles 
which  could  be  utilized  in  other  institutions  or  in  municipal 
departments  or  in  construction  work  for  the  city. 

I  can  find  no  printed  reports  for  the  department  of  correction 
for  the  period  between  1893  and  1902.  In  1902  the  department 
of  correction  was  under  one  commissioner.  In  1905  the  state 
legislature  passed  an  act  providing  for  the  sale  of  land  of  Kings 
County  penitentiary  and  the  removal  of  the  inmates  to  a  peniten- 
tiary to  be  established  at  Riker's  Island  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  department  of  correction.  This  plan  was  never  carried  out 
in  its  entirety.  An  appropriation  of  $2,000,000  was  made  for  a 
penitentiary  that  was  to  cost  $4,000,000  when  completed.  Plans 
for  a  great  congregate  building  were  prepared  at  a  cost  of  $80,000. 
They  were  never  executed  and  the  appropriation  was  afterward 
rescinded.  The  penitentiary  prisoners  from  Kings  County  were 
removed  to  the  Blackwell's  Island  penitentiary  without  a  suitable 
increase  in  accommodations.  In  1905  the  New  York  City  reforma- 


90  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

tory  was  established  by  an  act  of  the  legislature,  and  in  1910  two 
new  buildings  for  the  use  of  the  reformatory  inmates  were  com- 
pleted. Buildings  belonging  to  the  hospital  for  the  insane,  once 
located  there,  completed  the  plant.  Provision  was  made  in  this 
manner  for  250  inmates.  More  than  twice  that  number  are  now 
housed  in  the  reformatory  with  no  increased  accommodations. 
In  1912  the  Queens  County  jail  came  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
department  of  correction. 

Private  citizens  and  private  organizations  have  taken  an  active 
but  varying  interest  in  the  work  of  the  department.  The  American 
Female  Guardian  Society  began  work  in  the  penal  institutions 
of  the  city  between  1840  and  1846,  and  were  responsible  for  securing 
from  the  city  officials  the  appointment  of  women  to  look  after  the 
women  prisoners.  The  prison  association,  organized  in  1844, 
began  at  this  time  its  supervision  of  the  conditions  of  the  insti- 
tutions. The  interest  and  work  of  the  latter  organization  continue 
to  the  present  time,  and  for  the  city  institutions  other  than  the 
city  reformatory  it  performs  a  service  similar  to  that  rendered  by 
the  state  board  of  charities  to  the  reformatory  and  to  public  and 
private  correctional  institutions  of  the  state  at  large. 

So  far  as  I  can  gather  from  the  material  at  my  command,  it 
would  appear  that  previous  to  the  Civil  War  the  authorities  and 
the  people  of  the  city  were  wide  awake  and  alive  to  the  necessities 
of  changing  conditions  if  prisons  were  to  be  anything  more  than 
places  of  punishment.  The  great  Civil  War  withdrew  the  atten- 
tion of  the  public  from  these  problems  and  at  its  close  the  growth 
of  the  city,  the  beginnings  of  the  problems  of  immigration,  and 
above  all  the  unfortunate  part  played  by  party  politics  in  the 
management  of  city  affairs,  seem  to  have  halted  the  proper  devel- 
opment of  our  penal  institutions.  The  same  topics  are  touched 
upon  year  after  year;  the  same  complaints  made.  Apparently, 
however,  the  city  has  never  been  able  to  catch  up  with  its  correc- 
tional problem,  still  less  to  solve  it. 

Present  Organization 

Today  the  department  of  correction  exercises  supervision  over 
all  the  penal  institutions  of  the  boroughs  of  Manhattan,  Kings 
and  Queens.  The  institutions  are  grouped  into  three  classes: 


CHARITIES  AND   CORRECTION  91 

1.  The  district  prisons  of  the  borough  of  Manhattan,  in  which 
prisoners  are  held  subject  to  arraignment  in  the  magistrates' 
courts  and  from  which  they  are  transferred  to  the  city  prison, 
popularly    known  as    The    Tombs.       The  district  prisons  are 
known  as  the  Harlem  Prison,  the  West  Fifty-third  Street  Prison, 
the  East  Fifty-seventh  Street  Prison,  Essex  Market  Prison,  and 
Jefferson  Market  Prison. 

2.  The  three  city  prisons — Manhattan,   Kings,   and  Queens. 
These  prisons  are  intended  to  house  those  prisoners  awaiting  trial 
by  special  sessions,  indictment  by  the  grand  juries,  or  trial  by 
county  courts  or  general  sessions.      Under  existing  conditions, 
however,  it  is  necessary  to  transfer  to  these  prisons  men  who  are 
serving  sentences. 

3.  The  third  group  comprises  the  institutions  in  which  prisoners 
serve  sentences.     These  are  the  penitentiary,  the  workhouse,  the 
branches  of  the  two  institutions  at  Riker's  Island  and  at  Hart's 
Island,  the  city  reformatory  located  at  Hart's  Island,  and  the  New 
Hampton  farm,  a  country  branch  at  present  of  the  city  reforma- 
tory. 

The  administration  of  the  department  is  in  the  hands  of  a 
commissioner  with  one  deputy.  The  administrative  force  numbers 
only  eighteen  persons;  the  department  of  records  and  statistics, 
seven  persons;  the  engineering  staff,  twenty-four;  the  storekeeping 
staff,  eighteen.  The  total  force  of  the  department  is  six  hundred 
and  eight.  The  appropriation  for  the  maintenance  of  the  depart- 
ment for  the  year  1915  amounts  to  $1,312,220.51. 

The  most  interesting  group  of  institutions  is  the  group  in  which 
prisoners  serve  sentences.  These  institutions  are  most  important 
to  the  community  as  they  are  to  serve  either  as  deterrents  to  the 
commission  of  crime,  or  better,  where  possible,  for  the  reformation 
of  the  criminal.  At  this  time  all  these  institutions  are  badly 
overcrowded.  On  January  1,  1914,  when  the  present  administra- 
tion took  charge  of  the  city,  there  were  in  the  penal  institutions 
of  the  city  4602  prisoners.  In  the  latter  part  of  February,  1915, 
we  had  in  our  care  7467  prisoners,  an  increase  of  over  fifty  per 
cent.  During  the  same  period  there  was  practically  no  increase 
in  the  accommodation  for  the  prisoners,  and  an  increase  of  less 
than  four  per  cent  in  the  number  of  persons  to  care  for  them.  The 


92  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

difficulties  and  dangers  of  such  a  situation  are  obvious.  In  the 
workhouse  at  Blackwell's  Island  we  have  had  more  than  1800 
prisoners.  As  many  as  730  women  have  occupied  quarters 
designed  for  150.  At  the  penitentiary  the  population  has  passed 
the  1800  mark,  and  even  after  the  removal  of  the  women  to 
Queens  the  penitentiary  has  not  been  able  to  accommodate  in 
cells  all  the  men  sentenced  there,  even  with  the  relief  afforded  by 
transfers  to  the  other  institutions  of  the  department.  This 
crowded  condition  has  been  due  not  alone  to  the  increase  in  the 
actual  number  of  commitments  but  to  the  increased  length  of 
sentence. 

Under  these  conditions  it  has  been  only  by  the  greatest  devotion 
to  duty  on  the  part  of  wardens,  keepers,  matrons  and  other 
employes  that  a  very  serious  condition  of  affairs  has  not  resulted. 
The  employes  of  the  department  are  entitled  to  the  highest 
possible  credit.  We  are  fully  aware,  far  more  so  than  any  outside 
critics  can  possibly  be,  of  the  shortcomings  of  the  department ;  but 
in  criticizing,  the  public  is  asked  to  remember  the  difficult  condi- 
tions under  which  we  have  been  obliged  to  do  our  work  for  the  last 
year — the  inadequacy  of  the  buildings,  the  lack  of  proper  equip- 
ment to  give  employment,  the  strain  put  upon  the  employes 
through  the  great  additional  work,  the  difficulty  of  securing  funds 
necessary  even  to  feed  and  clothe  properly.  Nevertheless,  the 
outlook  is  not  hopeless.  We  have,  we  believe,  mastered  the 
situation  sufficiently  to  be  able  to  outline  a  plan,  which,  if  it  can 
be  followed  through,  will  greatly  improve  existing  conditions. 

It  is  an  accepted  principle  of  modern  penology  that  society  is 
best  served  by  the  reform  of  offenders,  and  that  where  this  is  not 
possible,  society  should  be  protected  by  the  custodial  care  of  its 
enemies.  To  secure  reform,  certain  fundamentals  are  necessary — 
proper  housing  conditions,  not  in  luxurious  quarters,  but  with 
plenty  of  air  and  sunshine;  proper  sanitation;  opportunity  for 
classification;  a  chance  to  develop  self-control  and  initiative 
on  the  part  of  the  prisoners;  and  above  all,  opportunity  for 
educational  training,  where  it  is  needed,  industrial  training  and 
occupation,  and  the  awakening  of  the  spiritual  faculties.  These 
cannot,  of  course,  be  given  fully  under  existing  conditions.  In 
the  first  place,  most  of  the  buildings  of  the  department  are  old  and 


CHARITIES  AND   CORRECTION  93 

should  be  condemned,  if  for  nothing  else,  on  account  of  their  lack 
of  sanitation.  In  this  connection,  I  would  say  that  the  department 
of  health  has  been  requested  to  make  and  is  making  a  complete 
survey  of  the  one  hundred  and  ninety  buildings  belonging  to  the 
department.  As  soon  as  this  survey  has  been  completed,  a  report 
will  be  made  which  will  enable  us  to  know  exactly  where  we  stand 
and  will  make  it  possible  for  us  to  lay  before  the  public  an  authori- 
tative statement  as  to  the  needs  of  our  department  in  this  direction. 

The  labor  problem  is  probably  the  one  which  is  most  difficult 
to  solve.  The  question  is  continually  asked  as  to  why  industries 
cannot  be  conducted  on  a  paying  basis  just  as  private  industries 
are  conducted.  Why  cannot  penal  institutions  be  made  self- 
supporting?  More  than  this,  why  is  it  not  possible  to  pay  a  fair 
wage,  if  not  a  standard  union  wage,  to  prisoners  who  can  and  do 
do  the  work  of  the  industrial  departments?  The  reasons  are  not 
far  to  seek. 

First,  a  market.  In  accordance  with  the  constitution  of  New 
York  state  this  can  be  found  only  in  city  institutions  and  city 
departments.  We  can  place  absolutely  nothing  on  the  open 
market.  Other  city  institutions  and  other  city  departments  do 
not  want  our  wares  unless  they  equal  in  quality  goods  at  the  same 
price  which  can  be  bought  in  the  open  market.  The  proposition 
works  both  ways.  It  has  not  been  possible  in  the  past  for  the 
city  to  afford  modern  machinery.  Without  modern  machinery 
it  has  been  impossible  to  produce  articles  of  the  first  quality.  It  has 
seemed  to  be  a  vicious  circle.  A  private  manufacturer,  who  installs 
expensive  machinery,  must  use  it  up  to  capacity  to  make  it  pay. 
He  cannot  afford  to  have  it  lie  idle.  In  modern  industry,  machine 
work  is  large  in  proportion  to  hand  labor.  It  must  be  to  be 
profitable.  In  prisons  hand  labor  has  always  borne  a  large  propor- 
tion to  machine  work.  At  the  present  moment  our  neighboring 
state  of  Pennsylvania  is  attempting  to  replace  a  law  which  absol- 
utely forbids  the  use  of  power  machines  and  which  permits  only 
thirty-five  per  cent  of  the  prisons  to  be  used  in  productive  labor, 
by  a  law  in  vogue  in  New  York  state  whereby  the  labor  of  all 
prisoners  may  be  employed  under  the  "state  use"  plan. 

Second,  on  the  side  of  labor,  there  are  no  special  reasons  short 
of  passing  the  time  why  prisoners  should  work  and  work  well. 


94  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

So  far  as  New  York  city  institutions  are  concerned,  no  premium 
is  placed  upon  faithfulness  or  skill  in  the  shops.  The  man  who 
idles,  dislikes  his  work,  wastes  materials,  is  on  the  same  level  as 
the  man  who  does  efficient  work.  Human  nature  is  much  the 
same  in  prison  as  out  of  it.  Perhaps  most  of  us  would  not  do 
much  if  there  were  not  some  incentive  as  a  reward  for  application. 
One  of  the  reasons  why  modern  penologists  are  advocating  farm 
colonies  for  penal  institutions  is  the  greater  opportunities  for  the 
employment  of  labor  in  ways  that  will  be  productive.  To  help 
us  solve  the  problem  of  prison  labor  on  the  side  of  the  labor  itself, 
a  bill  has  been  introduced  at  Albany  which  we  hope  will  become  a 
law.  This  bill  provides  for  the  introduction  of  an  indeterminate 
sentence  and  parole  system  for  the  workhouse  and  penitentiary. 
If  it  becomes  a  law,  the  bill  will  enable  us  to  reward  faithful  service, 
if  not  with  money,  at  least  with  what  is  as  valuable  to  the  prisoner 
as  money,  and  that  is  time  off.  With  this  lever  we  believe  we  can 
secure  effective  work  in  the  shops.  The  passage  of  the  bill  will 
be  the  first  great  important  step  in  our  plan  for  the  reorganization 
of  our  department.1 

Plan  for  Reorganization 

In  planning  reorganization,  the  vital  points  are  the  necessary 
changes  in  the  organization  and  administration  of  the  three  institu- 
tions with  their  branches  in  which  sentences  are  served.  The 
penitentiary  and  workhouse  proper  are  located  on  Blackwell's 
Island.  On  this  island  are  three  of  the  great  charitable  institutions 
of  the  city — the  city  hospital,  the  city  home,  and  the  metropolitan 
hospital.  Our  two  institutions  each  lie  between  two  of  the  chari- 
table institutions.  Jurisdiction  over  the  island  is  divided  between 
the  department  of  charities  and  the  department  of  correction.  We 
have  practically  no  grounds  surrounding  either  institution.  We 
can  give  little  outdoor  work  or  outdoor  exercise  to  the  prisoners — 
practically  none  to  the  seven  or  eight  hundred  women  at  the  work- 
house. We  desire  to  remove  both  these  institutions  from  Black- 
well's  Island,  giving  over  the  entire  island  to  our  sister  department, 
which  would  welcome  our  departure. 

1  At  this  date,  April  30,  the  bill  has  passed,  has  been  signed  by  the  mayors 
of  the  three  first-class  cities,  and  is  now  waiting  the  governor's  signature. 


CHARITIES  AND   CORRECTION  95 

We  have  already  begun  to  prepare  for  the  removal  of  the  work- 
house. At  Riker's  Island  we  have  four  hundred  acres  of  ground, 
most  of  it  made  by  the  deposits  from  the  street  cleaning  department. 
The  soil  is  fertile,  and  we  are  told  is  admirably  adapted  to  intensive 
truck  gardening.  With  inmate  labor  we  are  building  simple 
wooden  dormitories  on  solid  concrete  foundations  which  later 
on  can  be  used  for  a  more  permanent  type  of  buildings.  These 
dormitories  will  accommodate  about  one  hundred  fifty  men  each. 
They  have  been  built  entirely  by  prison  labor,  costing  about 
half  what  they  would  have  cost  had  they  been  built  by  contract. 
One  such  building  is  already  completed  and  another  will  be  com- 
pleted within  a  week  or  ten  days.  Before  next  winter  we  expect 
to  be  able  to  accommodate  on  the  island  one  thousand  workhouse 
men.  In  addition  to  the  wooden  dormitories,  we  are  building  a 
cell  house  to  accommodate  the  men  who  do  not  prove  good  citizens 
in  a  community  life. 

It  is  our  intention  to  employ  prisoners  during  the  first  years  of 
occupation  in  preparing  the  land  for  farming  operations.  The 
refuse  contains  broken  bottles,  tin  cans,  and  other  matter  foreign 
to  farming  operations.  This  is  to  be  removed  by  means  of  sifting. 
This  work  will  employ  a  large  number  of  men,  and  when  the 
ground  is  prepared  several  hundred  can  be  profitably  employed 
for  a  good  part  of  the  year.  Industrial  occupation  will  have  to  be 
provided  for  the  remainder  of  the  men  and  for  all  during  the  winter 
months.  Such  plans  are  already  under  way,  but  are  not  yet  in 
shape  to  be  made  public.  Ultimately,  we  hope  to  provide  quarters 
on  Riker's  Island  for  all  the  men  prisoners  of  the  workhouse  at  a 
cost  of  only  a  small  part  of  the  $4,000,000  which  a  few  years  ago 
it  was  planned  to  spend  for  the  penitentiary,  and  for  which  $80,000 
was  actually  spent  in  architect's  plans  afterward  abandoned. 

For  the  sentenced  women  of  the  department  of  correction,  we 
hope  to  secure  a  farm  colony  outside  of  the  city  limits.  Here  we 
will  build  a  cottage  type  of  institution,  thus  making  classification 
possible.  The  purchase  of  this  land  is  the  only  land  which  we  shall 
have  to  ask  the  city  to  buy  in  order  to  carry  out  our  plan.  In  this 
colony  we  will  place  the  women  sentenced  both  to  the  workhouse 
and  to  the  penitentiary.  In  character  there  is  little  to  choose 
between  them.  The  passage  of  the  Hoff-Mills  bill  will  make  it 


96  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

possible  for  us  to  hold  the  repeaters  for  a  maximum  of  two  years, 
if  desirable,  and  to  send  them  out  under  the  supervision  of  parole 
officers. 

The  plans  for  the  development  of  the  New  York  city  reformatory 
for  male  misdemeanants  at  New  Hampton  are  well  under  way. 
A  colony  of  about  fifty  young  men  has  been  there  for  the  past  year 
and  these  young  men  have  done  much  toward  getting  the  land 
under  cultivation.  Last  summer  the*  value  of  the  crops  more  than 
met  the  expenses  of  the  experiment.  An  appropriation  has  been 
made  to  erect  permanent  buildings,  and  the  construction  engineer 
has  been  engaged  as  well  as  instructors  in  the  various  mechanical 
industries.  They  are  already  on  the  grounds.  A  construction 
camp  is  in  progress  and  within  the  next  month  we  expect  to  have 
more  than  one  hundred  of  the  young  men  at  Hart's  Island  trans- 
ferred to  the  farm  for  the  purpose  of  beginning  the  erection  of  the 
permanent  plant.  Before  the  end  of  our  administration,  we  hope 
to  be  able  to  transfer  the  entire  five  hundred  young  men,  thus 
leaving  Hart's  Island  ready  for  the  next  step  in  the  development 
of  the  department,  which  will  be  the  building  of  an  industrial 
penitentiary  on  Hart's  Island. 

Hart's  Island  is  too  small  to  be  used  as  an  agricultural  colony, 
as  it  contains  only  about  eighty  acres ;  but  there  is  ample  room  for 
a  penitentiary  of  the  type  we  propose.  It  will  be  necessary  to 
develop  our  industries  and  add  to  their  number.  This  will  mean 
a  determination  of  what  industries  can  be  found  whose  products 
can  be  used  in  the  city  government.  Already  such  studies  are 
under  way.  A  plan  outlining  the  proposed  development  with  its 
probable  cost  has  already  been  presented  to  the  mayor  and  the 
board  of  estimate  and  apportionment.  It  is  our  great  ambition 
to  proceed  so  far  with  this  plan  during  the  present  administration 
as  to  make  its  carrying  out  to  completion  at  least  a  probability. 

The  physical  development  of  the  department  is  less  important 
than  the  spiritual.  Along  with  relief  from  overcrowding,  with 
sanitary  conditions  and  opportunity  for  educational  and  industrial 
training,  must  come  opportunities  for  development  of  character, 
self-restraint  and  self-direction.  It  is  our  belief  that  these  oppor- 
tunities will  come  through  the  development  of  the  personnel  of  the 
department.  We  believe  that  there  is  a  desire  for  improvement 


CHARITIES  AND   CORRECTION  97 

on  the  part  of  the  majority  of  the  prison  employes.  It  is  exhibited 
in  many  quiet  and  unspectacular  ways.  It  is  not  easy  nor  can 
it  be  done  quickly,  but  by  encouraging  all  the  good  material,  by 
the  replacing  of  the  material  incapable  of  development  or  undesir- 
ous  of  it,  by  careful  selection  of  people  not  only  with  training  but 
with  ideals,  we  believe  we  are  in  the  way  of  a  steady  development 
of  the  department  toward  the  essentials  of  modern  penological 
theory.  My  personal  experiences  of  thirteen  years  of  work  at  the 
New  York  state  reformatory  for  women  at  Bedford  with  women 
who  have  broken  the  law  have  proved  to  me  the  value  of  experi- 
ment with  methods  or  organization,  discipline  and  self-government, 
but  conditions  in  a  new  institution  under  one's  personal  supervision 
are  quite  different  from  those  in  a  department  controlling  varied 
institutions  with  century-old  traditions.  On  taking  charge  of 
the  department  on  January  1,  1914,  I  realized  that  many  changes 
were  desirable  and  set  about  at  once  to  survey  the  situation,  to 
determine  a  policy  and  to  plan  out  our  course.  To  this  plan  we 
are  steadfastly  adhering.  We  are  willing  to  experiment,  but  we 
believe  in  experimenting  slowly  and  without  incurring  dangers 
which  come  from  a  too  great  impatience  with  difficult  conditions, 
and  too  great  anxiety  for  improvement  more  rapid  than  is  war- 
ranted by  the  human  and  physical  machinery  at  our  command. 
If  new  wine  is  poured  too  rapidly  into  old  bottles  we  know  the 
consequences.  We  believe  in  progress  toward  the  highest  ideals 
attainable,  but  we  believe  in  making  it  in  a  sane  and  sure  fashion 
which  is  the  surest  road  to  permanent  success. 


THE   DEPARTMENT  OF  CHARITIES 

JOHN   A.  KINGSBURY 
Commissioner  of  the  Department  of  Charities 

AMERICA  borrows  its  system  o*f  poor  relief  from  England. 
In  New  York  the  early  work  of  caring  for  the  poor  and  the 
prisoners  was  the  task  of  the  poof  master.  Correction  is 
the  child  of  Charities  and  not  Charities  of  Correction.  It  is 
interesting  that  the  first  public  workhouse  and  house  of  correction 
in  this  city  was  situated  where  the  City  Hall  now  stands.  It  was 
a  small  building  about  twenty-five  by  fifty,  two  stories  high  and 
built  of  wood.  There  were  huddled  together  in  this  building  the 
insane  and  the  prisoners,  the  dependent  children  and  the  sick  poor, 
the  aged  infirm  and  the  inebriates.  It  took  a  grave  scandal  to 
induce  the  city  to  take  its  first  step  forward.  In  the  seventies  of 
the  seventeenth  century  that  scandal  focused  public  attention 
upon  the  miserable  old  almshouse.  The  public  was  outraged  and 
immediately  resolved  to  put  up  a  new  building,  although  it  took 
ten  or  fifteen  years  to  get  it  erected. 

Then  matters  drifted  along  for  another  fifty  years.  Another 
great  scandal  aroused  the  city  and  conditions  were  found  to  be  as 
bad  as  ever.  All  the  various  classes  were  herded  together  in  the 
new  almshouse  which  had  been  built  on  Chambers  street.  The 
aroused  and  outraged  city  then  bought  the  Kipps  Bay  farm,  which 
is  where  Bellevue  now  stands.  On  that  farm,  at  an  expense  of 
nearly  half  a  million  dollars,  they  erected  two  hospital  pavilions, 
an  almshouse  designed  as  a  penitentiary,  and  a  public  school. 

The  first  segregation  of  the  various  classes  of  dependent  and 
delinquent  persons  began  with  the  erection  of  Bellevue  in  1816. 

In  1833  the  following  report  was  sent  from  Bellevue  to  the 
secretary  of  state : 

We  send  you  a  weekly  return  of  our  almshouse  ending  on  the  fifth  instant, 
by  which  you  will  perceive  we  have  1,852  paupers.  1,017  of  them  are 
natives,  this  last  not  including  the  children  born  of  foreign  parents; 
835  foreigners  who  travel  here  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States.  There 

(98) 


CHARITIES  AND   CORRECTION  99 

can  be  no  doubt  that  the  almshouse  originally  was  intended  for  the 
respectable  poor,  but  as  at  present  organized,  it  has  become  an  asylum 
for  thieves,  prostitutes  and  the  worst  of  the  human  family. 

In  1836  the  male  prisoners  were  taken  from  Bellevue,  separated 
from  the  sick  and  the  insane  and  moved  over  to  Blackwell's  Island. 
In  the  following  year  smallpox  patients  were  taken  from  Bellevue 
to  the  smallpox  hospital  on  the  southern  end  of  the  island. 

In  1838  the  females  were  taken  from  the  Tombs  and  in  1839  the 
lunatics  were  taken  to  the  new  lunatic  asylum  on  Blackwell's 
Island.  This  building  is  now  used  as  the  metropolitan  hospital. 
It  was  not  until  1849  that  Bellevue  was  really  rid  of  the  almshouse. 
In  1861  the  city  hospital  was  completed  on  the  southern  part  of 
the  island  and  the  chronically  sick  were  taken  from  Bellevue. 
This  gives  an  idea  of  the  gradual  disintegration  of  the  almshouse 
and  the  specialization  of  the  separate  activities  for  the  care  of 
different  types  of  people.  Later  came  the  actual  separation  of 
charities  and  correction,  so  that  the  departments  might  be  actually 
administered  by  persons  presumably  familiar  with  their  special 
problems.  Later  came  the  department  of  Bellevue  and  allied 
hospitals,  with  its  institutions  for  the  acutely  sick.  These  insti- 
tutions were  separated  from  the  charities  department  for  some- 
what different  reasons. 

We  now  have  left  in  the  charities  department  a  more  or  less 
segregated  institution  in  which  the  remaining  people  are  more  or 
less  properly  segregated.  We  have  a  large  number  of  hospitals; 
we  have  the  city  home  for  the  aged  and  infirm;  we  have  the 
municipal  lodging  house  for  the  temporary  care  of  the  homeless; 
we  operate  the  morgue,  through  which  I  am  responsible  for  the 
care  and  disposition  of  twelve  thousand  dead  bodies  each  year. 
The  process  of  segregation  is  not  even  yet  completed. 

To  call  the  New  York  city  home  for  the  aged  and  infirm  a  city 
home  is  still  a  misnomer.  It  is  to  a  considerable  extent  still  an 
almshouse.  It  is  still  crowded  with  vagrants  and  inebriates. 
A  year  ago  a  most  unfortunate  bill  was  passed  giving  the  magis- 
trates' court  the  right  to  commit  people  back  to  the  city  home. 
That  bill,  in  my  judgment,  set  us  back  fifty  years.  Prisoners 
committed  by  the  courts  should  be  in  a  correctional  institution, 


100  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

not  in  a  city  home.  Though  we  still  have  inebriates  there  we  are 
preparing  to  get  rid  of  them.  The  projected  state  farm  for 
vagrants  may  also  take  away  that  type.  In  that  case  the  next 
few  years  may  see  the  city  home  a  home  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name, 
and  the  process  of  breaking  up  and  abolishing  the  almshouse  will 
then  be  practically  complete. 

A  few  illustrations  will  give  an  idea  of  the  extent  of  the  depart- 
ment's work.  I  venture  to  say  that  New  York  city  is  really  the 
greatest  philanthropist  in  the  world.  Through  the  commissioner 
of  charities  it  spends  annually  for  the  care  of  the  poor  almost 
eleven  million  dollars.  If  you  add  to  this  expenditure  the  budget 
of  the  departments  of  Bellevue  and  allied  hospitals  and  the  health 
department  hospital,  where  the  poor  also  are  cared  for,  the  board 
of  inebriates  and  the  ambulance  board,  you  get  the  enormous 
total  of  seventeen  million  dollars  a  year  spent  for  the  care  of  the 
poor.  This  does  not  include  expenditures  for  social  welfare  work 
such  as  education,  recreation,  public  baths  and  like  activities 
maintained  for  the  health,  comfort  and  general  development  of 
the  people.  The  budget  of  all  the  activities  which  might  be 
broadly  considered  as  welfare  work  of  the  greater  city  amount  to 
the  stupendous  sum  of  sixty  million  dollars  a  year.  This  almost 
exactly  equals  the  total  amount  Andrew  Carnegie  has  spent 
throughout  his  entire  life  and  throughout  the  world  for  libraries. 
Large  as  is  the  expenditure  of  the  department  of  charities,  I  want 
to  impress  upon  you  the  fact  that  that  department  does  not 
include  by  any  means  all  the  social  welfare  work  of  the  city. 

The  total  number  of  public  dependents  being  cared  for  by  the 
city  of  New  York  at  present  aggregates  more  than  fifty -four 
thousand,,  a  number  greater  than  the  entire  population  of  the  city 
of  Binghamton,  N.  Y.  If  the  commissioner  of  charities  should 
attempt  to  inspect  all  the  public  and  private  institutions  to  which 
the  city  commits  its  wards,  and  should  inspect  a  building  a  day, 
at  the  end  of  a  year  he  would  not  quite  have  finished  his  tour  of 
inspection.  If  he  decided  to  serve  two  eggs  a  week  for  breakfast 
to  all  the  people  he  is  feeding  in  public  institutions  alone  he  would 
add  twenty-three  thousand  dollars  to  his  food  budget.  If  he 
should  add  one  more  little  square  of  butter  per  day  to  each  person's 
food  allowance,  he  would  add  thirty-four  thousand  dollars  a  year 


CHARITIES  AND   CORRECTION  101 

to  his  budget.  If  he  should  give  these  old  and  sick  people  an 
extra  cup  of  coffee  he  must  ask  the  city  to  appropriate  fifty-four 
thousand  dollars  additional.  I  cite  these  illustrations  simply  to 
give  you  some  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  our  work. 

The  past  few  years  have  witnessed  great  improvement  in 
municipal  government  and  a  corresponding  improvement  has 
taken  place  in  public  charities.  Within  the  past  twenty  years 
the  first  public  institution  for  the  care  of  tuberculosis  has  been 
established,  the  first  municipal  lodging  house  has  opened  its  doors 
to  the  homeless,  the  first  public  bath  house  has  been  erected,  the 
first  farm  colony  for  inebriates  has  been  developed,  state  care  for 
the  insane  and  protection  and  segregation  of  the  feeble-minded 
have  become  fixed  policies,  public  pensions  for  widowed  mothers 
have  been  established  in  twenty-two  states.  One  by  one  the 
various  groups  of  the  unfortunate  and  afflicted  formerly  gathered 
together  in  the  almshouse  have  been  segregated  in  appropriate 
places.  In  this  whole  movement  New  York  has  taken  a  conspicu- 
ous part. 

The  expenditure  of  over  ten  million  dollars  a  year  by  the  depart- 
ment of  charities  does  not  mean  that  New  York  is  a  city  of  paupers. 
It  does  not  mean  that  we  have  a  greater  proportion  of  native 
dependents  than  other  great  cities  in  the  world,  although  our 
enormous  immigration  does  place  upon  us  a  unique  and  unjust 
burden  which  should  be  borne  in  part  at  least  by  the  national 
government.  It  does  not  mean  that  New  York  is  an  unhealthful 
city,  for  our  death  rate  compares  favorably  with  that  of  other 
large  cities.  It  does  not  mean  that  we  have  an  excess  number  of 
feeble-minded  persons  or  that  insanity  is  more  prevalent  here 
than  elsewhere.  What,  then,  is  the  significance  of  this  vast 
expenditure  of  the  greatest  of  all  philanthropists?  It  means  that 
the  city  of  New  York  has  recognized  its  obligation  to  provide 
proper  care  and  treatment  for  the  insane,  to  segregate  and  protect 
the  feeble-minded,  to  make  their  crippled  lives  as  happy  as  possible 
under  the  circumstances,  to  make  them  as  nearly  self-supporting 
as  may  be,  and,  as  we  continue  to  value  human  life,  to  keep  them 
from  reproducing  their  kind.  It  means  that  the  city  has  recog- 
nized its  obligation  to  cure  tuberculosis  and  to  take  proper  measures 
for  the  prevention  of  that  disease,  to  give  shelter  to  the  homeless 


102  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

and  to  spread  the  wing  of  protection  over  the  orphans  and  aban- 
doned children. 

Show  me  the  city  that  boasts  of  having  no  poverty  and  prates 
of  its  meager  expenses  for  welfare  work  and  I  will  show  you  the 
city  that  suffers  social  stagnation,  the  city  that  is  sending  its 
tuberculous  citizens  to  pest-houses,  its  homeless  men  to  jail,  its 
motherless  children  to  the  old-fashioned  orphan  asylum  and  it 
childless  old  women  over  the  hills  to -the  poor-house. 


DISCUSSION   OF  CHARITIES  AND   CORRECTION 

EDWARD  T.  DEVINE 
Professor  of  Social  Economy,  Columbia  University 

I  HOPE  it  will  not  be  regarded  as  partisan  politics  for  me  to  say 
that  so  far  as  this  greatest  city  on  the  western  continent  is  con- 
cerned, Mr.  Bryce's  reproach  that  the  one  conspicuous  failure  in 
America  is  its  municipal  government  has  been  for  the  time  being  com- 
pletely removed.  In  the  non-partisan,  socially  minded  administration 
which  we  are  receiving  at  the  present  time  from  Mayor  Mitchel  and  his 
associates  in  the  board  of  estimate  and  apportionment  and  from  the 
commissioners  whom  he  has  placed  at  the  head  of  his  city  departments, 
we  are  having  a  conspicuous  success.  The  spirit  of  this  administration 
is  admirably  embodied  in  the  two  commissioners  who  have  spoken  to 
you  this  afternoon,  Dr.  Davis  and  Commissioner  Kingsbury,  who  have 
shown  what  it  is  to  transform  the  routine  administration  of  institutions 
into  the  dynamic  promotion  of  social  progress. 

When  Mayor  Mitchel  was  speaking  of  the  various  departments  in 
that  extraordinary  and  admirable  address  which  he  made  on  Monday 
evening,  he  said  of  the  department  of  correction  that  the  trouble  has 
been  in  the  past  that  it  has  been  corruptive  instead  of  correctional,  and 
he  might  have  added  of  the  department  of  charities  that  the  trouble 
is  that  in  the  past  it  has  too  often  been  pauperizing  instead  of  redemptive. 
It  has  been  the  task  of  Commissioner  Davis  to  show  that  a  department  of 
correction  may  be  really  correctional  and  not  corruptive;  and  of  Com- 
missioner Kingsbury  to  show  that  a  department  of  charities  may  be 
really  redemptive  and  not  pauperizing.  Florence  Nightingale  pointed 
out  many  years  ago  that  a  hospital,  whatever  else  you  ask  of  it,  shall 
at  any  rate  not  make  people  sick,  and  yet  that  is  what  the  hospitals  of 
her  childhood  were  doing.  Typhus  was  a  common  disease  acquired  in 
the  hospital.  Is  it  not  equally  elementary  that  a  correctional  institu- 
tion should  not  be  corruptive  and  a  department  of  charities  should  be 
preventive  of  poverty  and  dependence  and  its  institutions  should  be 
redemptive?  Mayor  Mitchel  said  that  at  the  beginning  of  his  admin- 
istration he  instructed  Commissioner  Kingsbury,  who  would  indeed 
have  needed  no  such  instruction,  that  the  department  of  charities  as  a 
whole  should  concern  itself  primarily  with  preventive  work,  with  a  study 
of  the  causes  and  the  prevention  of  dependence. 

(103) 


104  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

As  for  Commissioner  Davis's  reforms  in  the  department  of  correction, 
while  we  rejoice  in  the  removal  of  those  institutions  entirely  from  Black- 
well's  Island  in  order  that  a  higher  and  reformative  type  of  institution 
may  take  the  place  of  the  prisons,  we  shall  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less 
than  the  complete  and  entire  abolition  of  the  prison  in  the  old  sense. 
There  is  no  need  for  a  prison  among  our  social  institutions.  What  we 
need  is  a  hospital  for  people  so  defective  mentally  or  physically  that 
they  cannot  take  care  of  themselves  in  society;  and  a  colony  for  those 
who  must  be  cared  for  continuously  because  they  cannot  be  trusted  at 
large.  We  need,  on  the  other  hand,  educational  institutions,  i.  e.,  real 
reformatories,  for  those  who  are  capable  of  reform. 

In  the  same  way  we  need  in  the  department  of  charities  not  an  alms- 
house  at  all  in  the  old  sense,  but  a  series  of  specialized  institutions.  Com- 
missioner Kingsbury  has  told  you  that  the  almshouse  itself  has  already 
in  large  degree  become  that  because  of  the  removal  of  various  classes 
one  after  another,  so  that  we  have  left  finally  a  home  for  the  aged  and 
infirm,  which  is  as  much  a  specialized  institution  as  the  home  for  ine- 
briates or  the  children's  home  or  the  various  other  institutions  that  one 
after  another  have  been  created  out  of  the  department  of  charities. 

We  are  not  simply  to  administer  institutions  that  have  been  bequeathed 
to  us.  We  are  to  conceive  a  problem  of  education  and  of  social  solution. 
Whether  the  term  of  office  be  long  or  short,  administrators  may  be  ex- 
pected to  make  some  contribution  toward  that  social  progress  the  spirit 
of  which  inspires  and  animates  these  two  departments  whose  work  has 
been  so  admirably  described  to  you  by  their  commissioners. 


THE   BOARD   OF  EDUCATION 

THOMAS  W.  CHURCHILL 

President  of  the  Board  of  Education 

THE  imminent  and  pertinent  problem  of  education  to-day, 
as  I  see  it,  is  the  injection  of  enough  of  the  living  spirit 
of  the  time  to  keep  the  school  alive  and  adaptable  to  use. 
As  I  read  the  history  of  teaching,  I  note  that  all  its  periods  of 
growth  and  systematization  are  followed  by  periods  of  revolt. 
Those  entrusted  with  the  formulation  of  education  build  up 
systems  and  perfect  them;  efficient  ways  of  doing  things  are 
selected.  Thoroughness  demands  repetition  in  the  same  way  over 
and  over.  Imperfections  loom  large  in  the  view  of  the  directors 
of  the  system.  They  concentrate  upon  these  defects  until  they 
devise  methods  of  overcoming  them.  The  best  discovered  settle- 
ments of  difficulties  are  then  safeguarded  by  rule  and  regulation. 
Mental  processes  are  restricted  to  uniform  standards.  Rigidity, 
inflexibility,  doctrinism  ensue.  Doubt  and  difference  are  combated 
and  extinguished  by  authority.  The  official  brand  of  education 
becomes  an  institution.  Its  process  hardens  into  habit.  The 
arteries  of  instruction  indurate.  They  become  incrusted.  Sclerosis 
pedagogicus  results. 

Meantime,  unsystematized  civilization  undergoes  its  inevitable 
changes  and  grows  farther  and  farther  away  from  education.  The 
products  of  the  school  go  out  and  undertake  the  work  of  life. 
Their  lack  of  fitness  for  it  appals  them.  Murmurs  rise  against  the 
school  system.  Criticism  spreads.  Time  produces  at  length  its 
masters  of  analysis  and  ridicule.  The  era  of  educational  unrest 
arrives.  Time-honored  systems  are  attacked  and  defended. 
Constructive  geniuses  arise.  Changes  are  forced  into  the  schools 
from  the  outside.  Ambitious  reformers  within  the  ranks  develop. 
They  devise  their  new  systems.  Education  starts  upon  another 
cycle. 

This  is  the  way  in  which  history  repeats  itself.  Erasmus,  Loyola, 
Comenius,  Rousseau,  Pestalozzi,  Froebel,  Herbert  Spencer, 
Herbart,  Horace  Mann,  all  of  the  names  associated  in  the  memory 

(105) 


106  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

of  the  world  with  important  service  in  education,  have  come  at 
periods  of  widespread  discontent,  and  all  of  them  have  attacked 
an  education  so  formalized  and  habitual  as  to  seem  practically 
perfect. 

Observe  the  situation  to-day.  I  pick  up  a  volume  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  National  Education  Association  and  read  the 
opening  words  of  the  first  paper.  They  run,  "The  educational 
world  is  in  a  state  of  great  unrest."  I  glance  at  a  current  number 
of  the  Journal  of  Education  and  read,  "Our  public  schools  are 
being  attacked  upon  all  sides."  I  glance  through  a  daily  paper 
and  see  a  report  of  an  address  by  a  college  professor  of  pedagogy. 
He  says,  "Education  is  sailing  through  a  seething  sea." 

All  the  signs  of  the  times  indicate  that  we  are  repeating  one  of 
those  historic  phases  in  which  the  gap  between  what  the  world 
demands  and  what  the  schools  provide  has  become  so  wide  as  to 
compel  universal  attention.  Unrest  is  undeniable.  Discontent 
is  undisguisable.  What  good  it  to  be  secured  by  denying  or 
disguising  or  by  regretting  such  a  condition?  It  is  symptomatic, 
a  sign  that  something  is  wrong,  a  call  to  intelligent  and  patriotic 
men  to  examine  the  situation,  find  the  cause  of  trouble  and  apply 
the  remedy. 

Down  through  the  history  of  education,  whoever  pointed  out 
the  fact  that  sclerosis  was  setting  in  has  always  been  reproved, 
rebuked,  assailed,  denounced  as  a  meddler,  an  interloper,  a  patent- 
medicine  man,  a  demagogue.  The  outsider  who  protests  that 
anything  is  wrong  with  the  machine  is  assailed  as  an  ignoramus: 
"You  know  nothing  about  education.  You  must  not  interfere 
with  so  complex  and  so  delicate  a  thing  as  this.  What  right  have 
you  to  meddle  with  the  eternal  verities  of  the  schools?" 

In  1898  the  educational  high  priests  of  the  municipality  of  New 
York  constructed  a  system.  They  did  not  first  make  any  study 
of  New  York  children  or  their  needs,  of  the  life  opportunities 
open  to  young  men  and  women.  Observation  and  induction, 
experiment,  comparison  of  results,  selection  of  the  best  and  exten- 
sion of  them  is  the  method  of  science.  It  is  the  method  of  building 
up  industry  or  business.  It  was  not  the  method  of  the  makers 
of  our  educational  scheme.  In  the  seclusion  of  their  offices, 
surrounded  with  courses  of  study  borrowed  from  other  systems, 


EDUCATION  107 

guided  by  internal  logic  and  the  assumptions  of  inner  conscious- 
ness, they  built  the  curriculum  of  the  people's  schools.  Selected 
specialists,  trained  in  the  same  scholastic  traditions,  were  called 
upon  for  contributions.  That  we  might  be  thought  well  of  else- 
where and  abroad,  striking  and  showy  exhibits  from  other  systems 
were  installed  within  the  temple  where  this  idol  was  constructed. 
Much  weighty  argument  ensued  while  it  was  fashioning.  But 
once  it  was  complete,  discussion  ended.  The  course  of  study 
issued  as  a  sacred  perfection  from  which  no  jot  or  tittle  should  be 
taken,  a  thing  to  cleave  to  and  to  worship.  Such  obeisance  would 
violate  no  law,  for  the  curriculum  was  like  nothing  in  the  heavens 
above,  the  earth  beneath,  or  the  waters  under  the  earth.  It 
came  forth  in  all  its  completeness,  full  panoplied,  and  stalked  into 
the  classrooms.  It  came  into  the  school  of  the  immigrant  child 
of  Rivington  street  who  hears  no  English  in  the  thoroughfare  or 
in  the  home,  who  on  the  stroke  of  the  clock  that  declares  him  of 
legal  working  age,  must  take  his  place  in  the  ranks  of  toilers  for  a 
wage.  It  came  into  the  school  of  the  well-bred  child  of  Washington 
Heights  whose  home  life  is  a  liberal  education,  who  looks  with 
practical  certainty  to  a  career  in  high  school  and  in  college.  To  the 
Bowery  as  well  as  to  Brooklyn  came  this  finely  jointed,  many 
storied,  richly  ornamented  course  of  study,  for  rich  and  poor,  fast 
and  slow,  exceptional  and  subnormal.  For  each  and  all,  the  same, 
unchanging,  unchangeable.  This  thing  is  to  pass  current  for  an 
education.  Cut  off  every  day  little  pieces  of  it.  Pass  them  out. 
Send  the  child  home  to  mull  over  them.  To-morrow  see  if  they 
are  in  his  head.  At  intervals  we  shall  send  searchers  to  examine 
how  much  has  been  lost. 

Such  is,  in  effect,  the  traditional  management  of  a  school  system ; 
the  issue  of  uniform  official  courses  of  study  over  the  educational 
counter;  and  then  examinations! 

Coincident  with  this  establishment,  the  unrest  which  American 
school  journals  perpetually  chronicle  was  well  under  way  in  this 
country.  Intelligent  parents,  distressed  by  the  bewilderment  of 
their  own  school  children,  learned  by  reading  the  daily  papers 
that  the  quiet  acceptance  of  whatever  a  school  system  thus  passed 
over  the  counter  was  out  of  style.  From  the  very  beginning  this 
great  course  of  study  met  with  protest  and  complaint.  Not  only 


108  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

from  parents,  but  from  principals  and  teachers,  complaints  came 
thicker  and  faster.  This  is  what  they  said : 

"The  trouble  with  this  is  not  that  it  is  new.  It  has  too  much  in 
it  that  is  old  and  outworn.  Arithmetical  processes  are  here  that 
went  out  of  business  practise  a  generation  ago.  This  course  of 
study,  the  product  of  ripe  scholarship,  has  much  that  has  passed 
into  the  next  stage  beyond  ripeness." 

Year  after  year  the  protest  of  intelligent  citizens  increased 
'against  the  teaching  of  the  schools.  The  knocking  at  the  door  of 
the  guardians  of  this  ancient  fol-de-rol  fell  on  ears  stuffed  with  the 
soft  cotton  of  self-complacency.  A  complainant  was  a  disturber. 

Inevitably  there  grew  in  the  board  of  education,  from  the 
repeated  protests  of  parents,  a  party  representing  the  spirit  of  the 
advancing  world  outside.  Three  years  ago  it  reached  a  majority. 
Its  representations  to  an  unprejudiced  legislature  resulted  in  the 
passage  of  bills  returning  to  the  people's  direct  representatives,  the 
board  of  education,  the  right  and  duty  of  requiring  schools  to 
render  real  service  to  the  community  in  place  of  perpetuating  a 
performance  of  pedantry  that  the  people  did  not  want,  did  not 
need  and  could  not  use. 

Within  the  past  two  weeks  the  metropolitan  newspapers  have 
given  much  prominence  to  criticism  of  the  products  of  the  elabor- 
ated and' overcrowded  course  of  study  of  which  I  spoke.  A  prom- 
inent merchant,  an  employer  of  public  school  graduates,  has 
printed  trie  conclusions  of  his  experience.  He  says: 

Charges  are  heard  on  all  sides  that  the  public  school  system  is  not 
properly  fitting  children  for  careers.  This  is  a  subject  which  I  have  been 
in  a  position  to  study.  The  statement  is  commonly  and,  I  reluctantly 
admit,  justifiably  made,  that  it  is  almost  impossible  now  to  get  competent 
boys  and  girls,  and  the  natural  conclusion  is  that  the  public  school  system 
is  at  fault. 

I  recognize,  he  says,  the  vast  problems  that  a  system  caring  for  the 
education  of  750,000  children  has  to  solve.  I  recognize  the  wonderful 
work  done  in  changing  the  groping  immigrant  into  the  well-poised  Amer- 
ican citizen,  and  everyone  who  reads  the  papers  knows  that,  three  or 
four  years  ago,  the  board  of  education  itself  began  to  pay  attention  to 
such  charges  as  I  have  mentioned.  The  struggle  between  those  board 
members  who  insisted  that  the  schools  should  be  left  in  the  hands  of 


EDUCATION  109 

educational  experts,  and  those  who  wanted  more  direct  preparation 
for  life,  was  a  hard  one.  I  am  glad  to  know  that  the  progressive  advo- 
cates of  practical  education  won  a  substantial  victory  over  the  advocates 
of  abstract  bookish  instruction.  I  think  it  was  high  time  that  such  an 
attempt  to  simplify  the  school  system  should  have  been  made. 

The  writer  continues:  Many  men  and  women  holding  responsible 
positions  with  me  to-day  started  at  the  age  of  thirteen  or  fourteen,  and 
have  developed  into  men  and  women  of  responsibility.  They  started 
in  some  years  ago,  willing  and  anxious  to  work,  willing  and  anxious  to 
learn,  and,  when  viewed  in  contrast  with  the  child  of  to-day,  We  naturally 
stop  and  ask  ourselves,  "Why  this  difference;  why.  is  it; that  we  cannot 
get  children  who  have  a  sense  of  responsibility  and  ambition  to  learn 
and  progress?"  To-day,  children  who  come  to  us  are  sixteen  years  of 
age,  two  or  three  years  the  seniors  of  the  average  beginner  of  former 
years.  It  may  be  fair  to  expect,  by  reason  of  their  maturer  age,  a  fuller 
development  of  the  old  qualifications.  We  find  the  reverse.  The  grad- 
uate cannot  write  legibly,  spell  correctly,  solve  easy  problems  in  arith- 
metic or  handle  simple  fractions. 

This  critic  goes  on  to  say :  I  do  not  believe  the  teacher  is  to  blame. 
I  do  not  believe  the  child  is  at  fault.  I  consider  that  the  school  load  is 
too  heavy,  so  that  a  thorough  training  in  those  few  things  which  are 
essential,  is  impossible. 

Further,  this  employer  says:  In  my  opinion,  there  are  studies 
introduced  in  our  public  schools  which  are  really  a  hindrance,  rather  than 
a  benefit.  The  time  devoted  to  them  should  be  employed  in  teaching 
the  pupils  the  subjects  which  will  be  useful  to  them  later  in  business. 
Might  it  not  be  well  to  experiment  with  a  school  of  the  old  type,  side  by 
side  with  the  new,  and  then,  in  a  little  while,  with  the  same  type  of  pupil, 
find  out  which  turns  out  the  better  product? 

He  concludes:  The  mistaken  idea  of  the  public  school  at  present 
is  to  fit  the  children  for  the  high  school,  and  the  high  school  for  the  col- 
lege. Less  than  five  per  cent  of  all  the  children  who  enter  the  public 
schools  ever  go  through  the  high  schools.  What  preparation  is  the  school 
giving  to  the  other  ninety-five  per  cent?  It  is  certainly  imperative  that 
we  look  out  for  these  masses.  The  taxpayers  and  business  men  have  a 
right  to  demand  that  the  school  system  make  suitable  provision  for 
them.  It  should  be  remembered  that  those  who  can  afford  to  go  to 
college  can  look  out  for  themselves.1 

1  Michael  Friedsam,  President  of  B.  Altman  &  Co.,  New  York  Sun,  April 
18,  1915. 


110  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

I  have  quoted  this  criticism  somewhat  at  length  because  it  is 
in  substance  the  same  complaint  that  was  repeated  by  newspapers, 
merchants  and  parents  to  members  of  the  board  of  education  with 
such  iteration  from  ten  years  ago  up  to  three  years  ago  that  the 
action  of  the  board  of  education  in  demanding  a  simplification 
of  the  burdens  placed  upon  the  children  and  upon  the  teachers 
seemed  imperative.  These  complaints  had  independently 
impressed  the  municipal  government.  It  had  ordered  the  most 
extensive  and  most  expensive  investigation  ever  directed  at 
any  school  system.  I  do  not  assume  to  say  that  so  sweeping 
a  criticism  of  the  results  of  New  York  schooling  as  had  cul- 
minated in  the  period  I  refer  to  is  just.  I  do  not  say  that  it  is 
based  upon  a  scientific  and  statistical  comparison  of  the  products 
of  our  schools  in  1910  with  the  products  of  1900.  I  wish  there 
were  some  indisputable  bases  for  comparison.  I  do  not  say  that 
the  critics  are  free  from  the  weakness  which  makes  men  prone  to 
exalt  the  excellences  of  old  times  over  the  deficiencies  of  the 
present.  But,  with  all  allowances  of  that  kind,  granting  that  our 
critics  are  ignorant  or  prejudiced,  I  grieve  that  it  is  possible  for  any 
merchant,  any  employer  of  public  school  graduates,  any  investi- 
gating commission,  to  say  that  our  schools  have  not  been  steadily 
progressing  in  fitting  children  for  use  in  the  world.  That  is  what 
any  investigators  would  have  to  say  of  our  fire  department;  that 
is  what  would  be  said  of  our  telephone  service ;  that  is  what  would 
be  said  of  our  municipal  bridges;  that  is  said  of  our  school 
buildings  and  equipment.  To  have  doubts  as  to  improvement  in 
our  teaching  and  in  the  results  of  our  education,  as  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  public;  more  than  that,  to  have  our  teaching  con- 
demned by  prominent  men  and  by  the  daily  press — these  are 
circumstances  to  attract  the  serious  attention  of  every  board 
member  and  to  require  diligent  search  as  to  the  cause. 

As  I  remarked  a  few  moments  ago,  there  was  a  reason  for  the 
parental  dissatisfaction  with  our  schools  as  it  was  centered  upon 
us  in  the  board  of  education  three  years  ago.  So  much  was 
required  of  the  teachers  and  children  that  there  was  no  time  left 
for  the  adaptation  of  the  school  to  the  needs  of  particular  children. 
Since  this  most  recent  comparison  of  results  of  the  old  schooling 
with  results  of  the  courses  inaugurated  about  1902,  I  have  asked 


EDUCATION  111 

that  a  comparison  be  made  of  the  free  time  of  teachers  then  and 
now.  The  tabulation  discloses  some  singular  facts.1  In  the  last 
year  of  the  course  of  study  of  1890  there  were  625  minutes  a  week 
allowed  for  optional  use.  Consider  what  this  means.  A  teacher 
finds  a  class  weak  in  some  essential.  The  most  obvious  thing  to 
do  is  to  correct  the  weakness,  just  as  a  stage  manager,  finding  a 
chorus  growing  stale  on  some  of  the  numbers  of  the  opera,  calls 
an  extra  rehearsal  and  freshens  up  those  numbers;  just  as  an 
orchestra  conductor,  finding  a  part  of  the  concert  program  weak, 
puts  extra  time  on  rehearsing  the  weak  parts.  The  teachers  and 
principals  of  1890  had  in  the  last  year  of  the  elementary  school 
course  625  minutes  to  put  where  it  was  most  needed.  When  we 
come  to  1912  we  find  that  they  had  195  minutes,  a  loss  of  430 
minutes  or  70%.  In  1890  the  teacher  of  the  last  year  had  seven 
subjects  to  teach  for  which  time  was  actually  prescribed :  Reading 
or  English,  geography,  history,  arithmetic,  drawing,  music  and 
writing.  There  were  in  that  year  two  additional  subjects,  viz., 
bookkeeping  and  plane  geometry,  but  the  time  devoted  to  them 
was  quite  within  the  discretion  of  the  principal  and  might  have 
been  much  or  little  as  the  exigencies  of  the  school  required.  There 
was  a  separate  manual  training  course  as  early  as  1890,  and  for 
pupils  who  followed  it  bookkeeping  was  omitted. 

In  1912  the  teacher  of  the  last  year  of  the  course  had  nine 
subjects  for  which  time  was  actually  prescribed:  Physiology, 
reading  or  English,  history,  arithmetic,  science,  drawing,  shop- 
work  or  cooking,  music  and  some  elective,  or  French  or  German. 
Writing,  which  was  in  the  last  year  in  1890,  had  disappeared  from 
the  last  year  in  1912,  and  geography  had  become  an  optional 
subject. 

If  you  compare  other  grades  of  1890  with  the  corresponding 
grades  of  1912  you  will  find  a  similar  loss  in  the  free,  adjustable 
time  of  the  teacher: 

1890  1912  Loss 

Seventh  year 625  minutes  235  minutes  390  minutes 

Sixth  year 625        "  205        "  420 

Fifth  year 625        "  210        "  415        " 

lSee  appendix  II,  p.  126. 


112  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  loss  of  free, adjustable  time  was  much  greater, 
for  to  these  figures  there  should  be  added  some  extra  time  assigned 
to  study  periods. 

From  these  figures  you  will  see  that  the  teacher  of  twenty-five 
years  ago  was  much  more  unrestricted  in  the  use  of  her  teaching 
time  than  the  teacher  of  1912.  If  you  go  back  farther,  you  will 
find  that  up  to  1870  there  was  no  time  restriction  at  all  upon  the 
individual  schools.  The  subjects  to  be  taught  were  specified,  but 
the  time  to  be  devoted  to  any  subject  could  be  determined  wholly 
by  the  needs  of  the  moment.  A  school  in  a  district  where  the 
children  inherited  "addition"  with  their  blood  could  in  those 
days  devote  more  time  to  the  improvement  of  English  speech: 
A  school  in  a  neighborhood  where  conversation  was  grammatically 
correct  could  give  less  time  to  English  and  more  to  what  was 
needed.  From  1870  to  1912  the  teaching  of  our  schools  enjoyed 
increasing  and  progressive  systematization.  It  is  regrettable  that 
this  progress  was  not  paralleled  by  a  set  of  testimonies  from  the 
general  public  that  meantime  the  children  were  becoming  more 
and  more  efficient. 

May  it  not  be  that  with  a  minimum  of  machinery,  there  was 
a  maximum  of  inspiration,  that  there  was  less  risk  of  the  teacher's 
becoming  a  cog  in  a  wheel  and  more  likelihood  of  the  school's 
being  vitalized  by  the  teacher's  personality  and  enthusiasm,  and 
that  there  was  transmitted  something  impalpable,  imponderable, 
spiritual,  without  which  education  is  dross? 

The  situation  reminds  me  of  Cadwallader's  filing  system.  He 
hired  an  expert  to  revise  the  business  of  his  office.  He  was  so 
proud  of  his  new  filing  system  that  he  made  it  the  subject  of 
enthusiastic  remark  to  every  friend  he  met.  After  some  time  an 
old  acquaintance  met  Cadwallader  and  said:  "Well,  Cadwallader, 
how's  the  new  system  going?" — "Fine!" — "How  does  it  affect 
your  business?"— "Well,  to  tell  the  truth,"  said  Cadwallader, 
"I've  been  so  busy  with  the  system,  I  haven't  had  any  time  to  look 
after  business." 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  regard  system  and  organization  with 
unholy  disrespect.  But  far  be  it  from  me  also  to  stop  both  ears 
to  the  earnest  protest  of  the  hard-headed  citizenry  who  are  paying 
for  the  schools.  Show  me  that  our  children  are  uniform  in  their 


EDUCATION  113 

surroundings,  their  talents  and  their  aptitudes,  and  there  will  be  no 
more  enthusiastic  upholder  of  uniform  expert  courses  of  study  than 
I.  But  so  long  as  schools  profess  to  serve  the  community,  so 
long  as  different  districts  of  the  community  represented  by  different 
schools  manifest  as  they  do  now  distinct  and  different  types  of 
mind,  of  experience  and  of  need,  so  long  shall  I  and  the  unsophisti- 
cated layman  like  me  who  constitute  the  board  of  education 
wonder  why  the  makers  of  school  systems  do  not  provide  and 
insist  upon  flexible  school  programs  capable  of  adaptation  to 
public  needs  and  of  satisfying  public  demand. 

It  is  fair  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  since  1912  substantial 
changes  have  been  made  in  the  course  of  study  by  the  present 
board.1 

Moreover,  the  time  table  adopted  since  1912  provides  for 
maximum  and  minimum  time  limits,  thus  giving  principals  more 
freedom  in  arranging  the  time  to  be  devoted  to  any  particular 
subject. 

Furthermore,  the  minimum  amount  of  time  devoted  to  the 
essentials  has  been  increased.  This  arrangement  permits  teachers 
to  dilate  upon  the  subjects  or  themes  in  which  the  class  is  deemed 
to  be  deficient,  and  to  give  less  time  to  such  subjects  as  are  thor- 
oughly understood  by  the  pupils,  so  as  to  prevent  the  class  from 
becoming  "school-sick."  Under  these  circumstances,  the  teacher 
can  ground  the  pupils  thoroughly  in  fundamental  studies.2 

The  board  of  education,  with  great  labor  and  delay,  has  gone 
far  to  establish  the  principle  in  our  schools  that  a  course  of  study 
can  be  made  over,  that  it  is  not  a  sacred  thing,  that  education  is 
not  the  transference  of  an  official  commodity,  that  education  is 
not  a  holy  institution  unalterable,  framed  in  glass,  but  that  it  is 
a  living  service  to  living  children  looking  around  and  forward,  not 
backward.  The  board  of  education  has  promoted  the  belief  that 
star  chambers  do  not  excrete  wisdom  which  should  be  enshrined 
in  unchangeable  courses  of  study.  The  board  of  education  has 
established  the  principle  that  teachers  in  contact  with  children 
and  neighborhoods  do  of  necessity  generate  ideas.  We  have 

1  Compare  appendix  I,  p.  118. 

2  Compare  appendix  II,  p.  126. 


114  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK   CITY 

devised  a  receptacle,  the  teachers'  council,  for  those  ideas,  and  we 
hope  that  such  a  system  of  inducing,  conserving  and  using  such 
ideas  is  an  indication  not  of  supervisional  weakness  but  of  strength. 
The  board  of  education  has  realized  that  a  system  of  education 
builded  in  days  when  every  child  was  getting  at  home  all  sorts  of 
work  with  his  hands,  and  when  books  were  so  costly  and  few  that 
a  goodly  part  of  all  human  knowledge  could  be  absorbed  in  a 
classroom,  and  only  there,  is  not  the  system  of  education  needed 
in  a  city.  Here  no  child  can  acquire  any  sort  of  manual  skill 
at  home,  but  finds  books  so  cheap  ,that  there  are  free  libraries  at 
his  door  large  enough  to  engage  him  for  a  lifetime.  We  have  made 
headway  even  against  our  perfect  school  system  in  showing  that 
an  education  based  wholly  on  books,  on  suitability  for  introduction 
into  a  learned  profession,  is  a  moral  and  economic  waste  for  a 
people  concerned,  in  so  vast  a  majority,  with  trade  and  industry. 
We  are  demonstrating  that  tax-supported  schools  may  not,  with 
fairness  and  justice,  be  used  for  the  creation  of  scholars,  but  that 
the  right  and  lawful  function  is  to  train  citizens  able  to  make  their 
own  way  and  to  contribute  to  the  common  good.  This,  if  I  read 
aright  the  periodical  literature  of  the  day,  is  the  trend  of  intelligent 
American  thought  and  purpose  as  concerned  with  the  schools. 
This  has  been  the  course  of  the  New  York  board  of  education  so 
far  as  its  ability  to  break  through  intrenched  pedagogical  opposi- 
tion has  enabled  us  to  go.  With  the  common  schools  we  have 
made  distinct  advance.  Every  part  of  the  course  of  study  has 
been  modernized.  As  fast  as  money  could  be  had,  we  have  put 
in  equipment  by  which  the  children  have  gratified  a  long-suppressed 
instinct  to  make,  to  create,  to  build  with  their  hands,  and  to  know 
the  real  world  about  them.  To  do  this  with  the  elementary  schools 
is  the  easiest  part  of  the  problem,  because  of  the  touch  of  the 
people  on  this  part  of  the  system,  obstructed  though  that  touch 
be  by  abandonment  of  power  to  isolated  superintendencies. 

The  elementary  school  system  was  not  so  difficult  of  access  as 
the  high  school  system.  The  common  schools  sprang  up  from 
the  needs  of  children.  As  the  country  grew  more  prosperous,  the 
period  of  schooling  extended  upward  to  children  of  older  years. 
But  the  first  schools  for  older  children  in  America  were  extensions 
downward  from  colleges,  and  were  specifically  designed  to  prepare 


EDUCATION  115 

youths  for  entrance  to  the  higher  institutions.  The  high  schools 
originated  to  serve  a  select,  exclusive  set  of  boys,  financially  and 
intellectually  able  to  go  to  college.  When  this  country  grew 
prosperous  enough  to  attempt  the  free  schooling  of  its  older 
children,  say  from  fourteen  to  eighteen  years  of  age,  there 
were  in  existence  hundreds  of  high  schools  and  academies 
with  generations  of  traditions  behind  them,  emphasizing  the 
contention  that  their  service  was  for  the  superior,  the  choice, 
the  intellectual  aristocracy.  Into  our  public  school  system 
came  this  undemocratic  idea.  For  years  the  high  school 
teacher  has  had  his  vision  bent  upon  the  college,  and  has  seen  the 
needs  of  the  public  service  only  with  a  sidelong  look.  For  years 
we  have  let  high  school  management  pull  everybody  along  a 
road  toward  a  destination  that  only  a  handful  ever  reach.  For 
years  the  tail  of  college  preparation  has  wagged  the  high  school 
dog.  We  have  built  and  equipped  for  our  high-school  teachers 
buildings  many  times  as  elaborate  and  expensive  as  the  ordinary 
schoolhouse.  We  have  paid  these  teachers  higher  salaries.  With 
these  advantages,  with  children  longer  trained  and  easier  to 
manage  than  fall  to  the  lot  of  the  lower-paid  teachers  in  the 
elementary  schools,  we  have  let  the  children  to  be  driven  in 
droves  because  the  subjects  offered  and  the  manner  of  presentation 
failed  to  establish  a  holding  power  either  of  interest  or  of  profit 
commensurate  with  the  opportunity.  This  thing  has  gone  on  in 
our  community  until,  at  the  first  pinch  of  municipal  poverty,  the 
cry  arises,  "The  high  schools  are  luxuries;  cut  them  off!" 

I  will  confess  that  to  our  board  of  education  the  high-school 
problem  has  put  up  a  formidable  and  imposing  front.  The  remote- 
ness of  high-school  studies  from  the  life  of  the  everyday  citizen,  the 
solemn  air  with  which  its  doings  are  defended  by  sanction  of  alleged 
superior  authority  has  often  made  some  of  the  ablest  members 
of  the  board  of  education  hesitate  to  ask  ordinary  questions  for 
fear  of  exposing  ignorance  of  a  distinguished  and  solemn  cult. 
But  in  this,  the  progress  of  the  country  at  large  again  comes  to  our 
assistance,  and  we  find  so  refined  a  community  as  Newton,  in 
blue-blooded  Massachusetts,  throwing  open  the  sacred  doors  of  the 
high  schools  to  all  children  of  high  school  age,  whether  they  be 
educated  or  illiterate,  clever  or  stupid,  refined  or  underbred.  We, 


116  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

who  read  our  educational  news,  find  all  over  the  country  more  and 
more,  cities  like  Chicago,  Los  Angeles  and  Milwaukee  declaring, 
The  high  school  is  not  a  peculiar  institution  for  the  maintenance 
of  its  course  of  study  and  its  traditions  for  the  few  who  can  profit 
by  it.  The  high  school  is  a  public  school  and  part  of  the  public 
school  system.  Its  business  is  to  serve  all  the  children  of  fourteen 
to  eighteen  years  of  age.  If  the  old  college  preparatory  course 
does  not  attract  and  benefit  these  children,  let  us  try  course  after 
course  until  we  get  those  which  do  the  business."  This  is  the 
growing  policy  of  the  country  toward  its  high  schools.  This  is  a 
policy  which  in  New  York  city  a  member  of  the  board  of  education 
must  fight  for,  almost  as  hard  as  the  men  of  1776  fought  to  abolish 
the  aristocracy.  We  do  not  have  to  wage  this  fight  against  tax- 
payers and  fathers  of  children.  They  know  well  enough  that  a 
child  of  fourteen  years  of  age  is  not  educated  and  ought  to  be. 

In  spite  of  this,  the  board  of  education  has  done  something.  It 
has  repudiated  the  idea  that  the  high  schools  should  be  closed  to  all 
except  the  superior,  whom  the  high  schools  should  select  by  written 
examinations.  The  proposition  to  turn  these  tax-supported 
institutions  into  select  schools  this  board  of  education  promptly 
and  cheerfully  rejected  by  an  overwhelming  vote.  It  determined 
to  give  its  high  school  teachers  the  same  opportunity  of  serving 
the  city  as  is  enjoyed  by  the  teachers  in  the  grades  who  take 
all  comers,  the  cream  and  the  skimmed  milk,  and,  so  far  as  time 
and  talent  permit,  prepare  then  for  a  living  less  forlorn. 

This  board  of  education  has  repeatedly  rejected  recommendations 
that  the  new  and  modern  subjects  be  kept  out  of  our  existing 
high  schools  and  segregated  by  themselves.  We  are  not  disposed 
to  perpetuate  scholastic  aristocracies  by  separating  the  bookish 
pursuits  from  the  operations  of  industry.  In  this,  we  are  also 
cognizant  of  the  American  trend.  We  see  Chicago  successfully 
opposing  the  separation  of  its  children  into  hand- workers  and  head- 
workers.  We  see  Philadelphia,  after  long  investigation,  declaring 
for  composite  high  schools.  We  see  Los  Angeles  including  in  its 
high-school  course  any  respectable  subject  that  enough  children 
will  take  to  make  employment  of  a  teacher  profitable. 

There  is  no  time  to  touch  upon  the  other  fields  into  which  the 
healthy  unrest  of  the  time  has  urged  this  board,  but  they  are 


EDUCATION  117 

many.  You  would  naturally  conclude  that  the  board  of  education 
has  shown  the  same  disposition  to  doubt  the  wisdom  and  sincerity 
of  every  tradition  swathed  in  its  venerable  cobweb.  You  are 
correct.  The  spirit  of  skepticism  regarding  educational  formalities 
is  in  the  air.  The  country  is  permeated  with  it.  'No  New  York 
member  of  the  board  of  education  can  escape  it,  if  he  reads  at  all 
or  listens.  It  is  a  universal  voice,  gathering  volume  as  it  con- 
tinues, the  protest  of  a  people  against  continued  quackery  by 
practitioners  who  have  their  own  prescriptions  to  defend.  The 
public  protest  is  not  against  education;  it  is  against  the  pseudo- 
pedagogy  that  cannot  make  intelligible  to  the  common  man  the 
things  it  does  as  it  holds  aloft  its  hand  impressively  and  cries, 
"These  things  are  not  understandable  except  by  minds  especially 
prepared." 

This  board  of  education  is  only'  an  incident  in  a  universal 
movement  delayed  somewhat  longer  than  elsewhere  because  of  an 
old  system  cleverly  constructed  more  for  self-defense  than  for 
public  service.  You  cannot  stop  this  piecemeal  repair  of  the 
schools.  You  may  legislate  this  board  out  of  office  and  appoint 
another.  But  that  cannot  stop  the  process.  It  will  only  delay 
it.  The  new  board,  like  ours,  will  endeavor  to  follow  the  old 
course  and  to  assuage  public  discontent.  In  due  time,  as  now  in 
our  board,  the  members  who  do  not  resign  in'disgust  will  catch  the 
national  epidemic  of  desire  to  rid  the  schools  of  their  absurd 
Brahminism.  We  do  not  care  who  is  the  board  of  education.  The 
modernization  is  bound  to  be  done.  But  there  are  thousands  and 
thousands  who  are  very  much  concerned :  the  children  who  are  in 
the  classes  now.  The  hesitating,  vacillating  policy  inseparable 
from  new  boards,  and  the  worse  tendency,  the  desire  to  make  a 
record  by  plunging  into  ill-considered  changes— ^these  movements 
of  new  boards  do  not  hurt  the  members  much,  but  they  ruin  the 
children's  training  beyond  salvation.  For,  by  the  time  things 
settle  down  to  a  consistent  and  profitable  progress,  these  children 
will  have  grown  away  from  the  age  of  education  and  will  have 
lost  forever  the  inestimable  benefits  of  continuous  instruction. 


118  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK   CITY 

APPENDIX   I 
COURSES  OF  STUDY  REVISED  SINCE  JANUARY  1,  1914 

History 

I.  The  chief  points  of  difference  from  the  old  courses  are: 

1.  The  absence  of  English  history,  and  the  substitution 
therefor  of  "related  events  in  European  history." 

2.  A  study  of  beginnings  of  American  history  in  Europe. 

3.  A  study  of  inventions  and  discoveries  that  have  influenced 
the  development,  industries  and  social  life  of  mankind,  with 
special  reference  to  the  progress  of  our  country.     The  latter 
is  a  particularly  important  innovation,  because  it  gives  credit 
to  industries,  discoveries  and  inventions  as  the  real  factors 
in  civilization. 

4.  Greater  emphasis  on  current  events. 

II.  Special  Features  of  the  Course: 

1 .  According  to  the  new  course  the  general  aim  in  teaching 
history  in  the  elementary  schools  should  be: 

(a)  To  give  the  pupil  a  clear  idea  of  the  principal 
occurrences  in  the  development  of  our  nation. 

(6)  To  give  an  understanding  of  the  institutions  of 
our  country  and  their  origin. 

(c)  To  engender  in  the  pupil  a  recognition  of  and  a 
feeling  for  what  is  good  and  great  and  to  awaken  in  him 
a  sympathy  with  all  praiseworthy  human  endeavor. 

(d)  To   induce   right   conduct   through   imitation   of 
illustrious  examples. 

(e)  To  foster  a  love  of  country. 

2.  History  in  the  first  four  years 

In  the  first  four  years  the  subject  is  taught  in  the  language 
and  geography  work  through  story-telling  and  supplementary 
reading  that  have  a  historical  bearing.  The  topics  are 
considered  chiefly  in  connection  with  holidays  and  celebra- 
tions, the  teacher  aiming  to  make  clear  the  reason  for  the 
observance  of  the  day.  In  the  fourth  year  local  history  is 
taught  through  historical  landmarks. 


EDUCATION  119 

3.  History  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  years 

The  first  cycle  of  American  history  is  completed  in  the 
sixth  year.  The  fundamental  aim  during  this  cyde  is  not  to 
store  the  child's  mind  with  detailed  facts,  but  to  paint  vivid 
pictures  so  as  to  give  the  pupil  lasting  impressions  that  will 
serve  as  a  background  for  more  intensive  reading  and  historical 
study.  The  child  is  fond  of  the  dramatic  and  of  thrilling 
adventure;  and  the  material  outlined  for  the  work  of  this 
year,  selected  stories  of  great  men  and  events,  is  especially 
adapted  to  appeal  to  these  impulses. 

4.  History  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  years 

A  second  cycle  of  American  history  is  completed  in  the 
seventh  and  eighth  years.  The  material  selected  for  emphasis 
includes  government  policies,  business,  industrial  and  social 
conditions,  trade  relations  and  institutions  of  the  present 
which  show  most  clearly  our  debt  to  the  past  and  give  to  the 
pupil  the  best  idea  of  progress  rather  than  such  facts  as  have 
only  a  temporary  or  antiquarian  interest. 

Under  this  heading  there  has  been  incorporated  in  the 
course  a  study  of  inventions  and  discoveries  which  have 
influenced  development  and  progress,  especially  in  this 
country. 

To  sum  up — revision  of  the  course  of  study  in  history 
has  aimed  at  simplification: 

(a)  Through  the  elimination  of  English  history  and 
European  not  directly  related  to  American  history. 

(b)  Through  the  elimination  of  topics  in  American 
history  beyond  the  limit  of  the  child's  mental  powers. 

(c)  Through  a  simpler  treatment  in  the  lower  grades 
(up  to  seventh  year),  in  which  the  emotional  element 
is  predominant. 

Revision  has  also  aimed  to  relate  the  subject  more  closely 
to  present-day  life: 

(a)  By  treating  the  events  of  the  past  as  explanations 
of  our  present-day  life  and  institutions. 

(b)  By   emphasizing   in    each   grade    where    possible 
current  events. 


120  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK   CITY 

Arithmetic 

The  new  course  in  arithmetic  is  an  outgrowth  of  the  tentative 
course  adopted  for  a  year's  trial.  Tentatively  adopted,  it  was 
with  certain  modifications  finally  approved. 

Special  Features: 

1.  Certain  grades  are  made  responsible  for  certain  special 
work  which  under  the  "spiral  method"  of    the   preceding 
course  was  spread  over  one  or  two  grades. 

2.  The  work  in  inventional  geometry  has  been  eliminated. 

3.  The  work  in  algebra  is  limited  to  the  use  of  the  equation 
and  this  is  made  optional. 

4.  Rules  in  arithmetic  that  have  in  practise  become  obsolete 
have  been  omitted. 

5.  Emphasis   is   placed,    more   largely   than   in   previous 
courses,  upon  accuracy  and  rapidity  in  the  fundamental  rules. 

The  course  as  a  whole  now  aims  to  teach  arithmetic  in  the 
elementary  school  so  as  to  develop  a  pupil's  interest  and  intelligence 
in  mathematical  problems  drawn  fresh  from  life,  and  ' '  to  give  the 
pupil  the  ability  to  solve  problems  of  an  every-day  type  easily, 
accurately,  economically  and  with  a  clear  understanding  of  the 
processes  employed." 

The  syllabus  of  the  course  emphasizes  the  practical  value  of 
arithmetic,  omitting  to  a  large  extent  topics  whose  relation  to 
life  is  not  very  close.  It  also  emphasizes  the  need  for  using  the 
local  environment  and  the  experience  of  the  children  as  sources 
for  problems.  It  now  prescribes  the  application  of  processes 
actually  used  in  the  business  world  in  the  solution  of  problems. 
The'  new  business  and  social  situations  that  arise  are  to  be  made 
clear  before  the  solution  of  the  problem  involving  them  is  required. 

The  course  is  simpler  because  of  the  matter  eliminated  or 
omitted,  and  because  of  the  treatment  advocated.  It  is  more 
practical  because  of  its  aim  and  the  effort  made  to  keep  the  work 
in  close  touch  with  the  realities  of  life's  situations. 

Civics1 

The  new  course  and  syllabus  aim  at  the  realization  on  the  part 
of  the  teachers  and  pupils  that  the  practise  of  civic  virtue  in  a 
1  Adopted  May  27,  1914. 


EDUCATION  121 

community  is  more  important  than  a  knowledge  of  governmental 
forms. 

"While  a  pupil  should  be  taught  that  a  citizen's  rights  are  the 
most  important  things  that  he  can  possess,  that  the  government 
exists  for  the  protection  of  his  rights,  yet  he  should  be  constantly 
and  persistently  reminded  that  every  right  has  a  corresponding 
duty." 

The  course  dwells  constantly  on  duties  and  responsibilities 
toward  the  community.  "Economy  is  emphasized  by  calling 
attention  to  the  cost  of  civic  improvements  and  to  the  ultimate 
defrayer  of  the  expenses,  viz.,  the  rent  payer  and  the  individual 
citizen.  The  constant  refrain  is  "rights  and  responsibilities." 

Details 

The  course  in  civics  readily  divides  itself  into  three  units : 

1.  The  work  of  the  first  four  years  is  mainly  directed  to 
safety  and  caution,  to  the  family,  the  school  and  the  neighbor- 
hood. 

2.  Specific  civic  instruction  begins  in  the  fifth  year,  bear- 
ing directly  upon  the  local  affairs  of  the  city  and  upon  state 
and  national  affairs  in  the  sixth  year.     The  close  of  the  sixth 
year  completes  the  first  cycle  of  simple  study  so  that  a  pupil 
who  leaves  school  then  may  have  an  understanding,  however 
elementary,  of  the  forms  and  procedure  of  government  and 
of  his  duties. 

3.  The  second  cycle  of  instruction  in  the  seventh  and  eighth 
years  is  more  formal.     The  aim  in  these  years  is  not  so  much 
the  machinery  of  government  as  the  functions  of  the  variotffe 
parts.     Throughout  the  last  two  years  use  is  made  of  current 
events  which  illustrate  the  actual  practise  of   government. 
The  nomination  of  candidates,   the  party  campaigns,   the 
elections,  court  preceedings,  acts  of  Congress  or  of  the  legisla- 
ture, the  actions  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  of  the 
governor  of  the  state,  of  the  mayor  of  the  city,  as  well  as 
significant  events  in  the  civic  life  of  the  nation,  state  and  city, 
should  be  used  to  vitalize  interest  and  to  promote  clearness 
of  ideas. 

To  sum  up,  the  new  course  has  outlined  work  in  civics  which  is 


122  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK   CITY 

simpler  than  formerly,  less  theoretical  and  more  closely  related 
to  life. 

Ethics 

The  teaching  of  ethics  is  included  in  the  course  of  study  for 
civics.  This  is  to  be  accomplished  not  so  much  by  actual  teaching, 
or  precept,  as  by  example  of  the  teachers,  and  by  participation  by 
the  pupil  in  the  conduct  of  the  school. 

The  syllabus  recommends  that  in  order  that  pupils  may  have 
actual  experience  in  governing  themselves  they  should  be  released 
from  constant  guardianship.  They  should  be  given  some  responsi- 
bility and  some  opportunity  for  self-government  by  allowing  them 
to  manage  or  take  an  active  part  in  managing  the  discipline  of  the 
school,  the  recitation,  their  own  clubs,  games,  playgrounds,  fire 
drills,  opening  ex'ercises,  entertainments,  class  and  school  libraries, 
and  athletic  contests. 

The  pupils  are  to  be  made  responsible  for  something  in  the 
preservation  of  school  property,  in  the  tidiness  of  school  premises 
and  schoolrooms  and  of  the  streets  of  the  neighborhood,  and  thereby 
they  are  to  learn  that  mutual  assistance  and  co-operative  service 
are  the  fundamental  principles  of  all  healthy  self-government. 


Music1 

In  music  the  course  of  study  has  been  simplified  without  loss 
of  effectiveness.  The  purpose  of  the  new  syllabus  is  to  train 
children  to  sing  and  to  develop  an  appreciation  of  good  music. 

The  teaching  of  technicalities  is  reduced  to  a  minimum,  espe- 
cially in  the  primary  grades.  More  dependence  is  placed  upon 
rote  methods  and  rote  singing  in  primary  grades.  Two-part 
singing,  which  formerly  began  in  the  second  year,  is  deferred  to  the 
fifth  year.  Music  writing  is  dispensed  with  in  primary  grades. 
Much  emphasis  is  placed  upon  voice  training,  song  interpretation 
and  intelligent  use  of  enunciation  of  English  in  singing. 

To  sum  up,  the  revision  has  been  simplification  from  the  theoreti- 
cal and  technical  toward  the  practical. 

1  Adopted  May  7,  1914. 


EDUCATION  123 

Penmanship1 

A  pamphlet  of  instructions  regarding  the  muscular  movement 
system  of  penmanship  was  issued,  similar  in  effect  to  a  course  of 
study.  The  aim  was  to  insure  in  the  schools  a  uniform  system  of 
penmanship.  The  pamphlet  contains  uniform  letter  types  and 
a  few  exercises  in  muscular  movement,  together  with  general 
instructions  as  to  posture  while  writing,  holding  the  pen,  etc. 
The  types  of  letter  chosen  are  those  that  seem  simplest  for  general 
use. 

Physical  Training2 

The  new  syllabus  is  much  simpler  than  the  old.  Many  compli- 
cated exercises  peculiar  to  formal  gymnastics  have  been  eliminated 
and  the  actual  number  of  exercises  has  been  greatly  reduced. 
Efficiency  of  exercise  is  now  sought  rather  than  variety. 

Rhythmic  exercises  have  been  introduced.  These  provide 
vigorous  rapid  movements  which  are  used  for  hygienic  purposes. 

The  most  radical  departure  from  traditional  practise  has  been  made 
in  the  exercises  designed  for  good  posture.  The  underlying  fault  in  bad 
posture  was  a  downward  displacement  of  the  head,  chest  and  abdominal 
organs,  associated  with  a  corresponding  deficiency  in  the  blood  distri- 
bution. To  correct  these  defects,  " elevation  exercises"  were  devised. 
These  lift  the  head,  chest  and  abdominal  organs,  and  by  increasing  the 
capacity  of  the  chest  affect  the  distribution  of  the  blood. 

The  co-operation  of  the  pupils  is  enlisted  in  obtaining  the  habit  of 
good  posture. 

The  new  syllabus  groups  the  exercises  according  to  their  purpose. 
This  enables  the  teacher  and  pupils  to  understand  the  nature  and 
intent  of  the  exercises  and  stimulates  effort. 

The  purposes  of  physical  training  are : 

(1)  To  obtain  good  posture. 

(2)  To  make  pupils  alert,  accurate  and  graceful  in  movements. 

(3)  To  render  them  vigorous  and  able  to  endure. 

(4)  To  teach  them  forms  of  recreation  for  use  in  after  life. 

(5)  To  establish  the  laws  of  health  for  the  immediate  purpose 
of  establishing  a  life-long  habit  of  good  hygiene. 

To  obtain  these  results  the  lesson  is  divided  into  sections : 

1  Adopted  October,  1914. 

2  Adopted  June,  1914. 


124  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK   CITY 

(1)  Corrective  exercises  for  good  posture. 

(2)  Educational  exercises  for  alertness  and  accuracy. 

(3)  Hygienic  exercises  for  vigor  and  endurance. 

(4)  Recreative  exercises  for  instruction  in  play  and  enjoyment 
in  its  practise. 

Homemaking  Course 

A  homemaking  course  for  girls  of  the  elementary  schools  was 
prepared  including  the  following  subjects :  Cooking,  laundry  work, 
sewing,  arithmetic,  hygiene,  first  aid,  physical  exercises,  English, 
music,  and  chemistry. 

The  course  aims  to  arouse  an  interest  in  home  keeping,  by  imparting 
knowledge  of  important  theoretical  and  practical  questions  arising  in 
home-keeping  and  by  instilling  habits  of  industry,  order,  cleanliness  and 
thrift. 

The  means  employed  is  a  furnished  flat  consisting  of  living-room, 
bedroom,  dining-room,  kitchen  and  bathroom. 

This  is  considered  one  of  the  pre-vocational  courses  for  girls,  on  the 
ground  that  most  women  will  sooner  or  later  be  engaged  in  homemaking, 
and  therefore  it  becomes  the  most  important  vocational  training  that  can 
possibly  be  given  to  girls. 

Shopwork 

Wherever  possible,  shopwork  has  been  extended  to  all  pupils 
thirteen  years  of  age  or  over  who  are  below  the  seventh  year. 

Cooking 
The  same  has  been  done  in  the  teaching  of  cooking. 

Differentiated  Courses  in  Seventh  and  Eighth  Years 
Differentiated  courses  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  years  have  been 
established. 

For  Public  School  62  six  courses  have  been  recommended,  as 
follows : 

Boys  Girls 

1.  Academic  1.  Academic 

2.  Commercial  2.  Commercial 

3.  Industrial  3.  Industrial 

(a)  Woodwork  (a)  Dressmaking 

(b)  Machine  shop  (b)  Millinery 

(c)  Electric  wiring  (c)  Pasting  and  novelty 

(d)  Sheet  metal  (d)  Power  machines 


EDUCATION  125 

At  the  beginning  of  the  7A  grade  the  pupils  will  be  divided  into 
six  sections,  each  section  in  turn  taking  up  either  the  academic 
course  or  the  commercial  course,  or  one  of  four  industrial  courses, 
devoting  in  this  case  nine  weeks  to  each  course.  These  courses 
are  intended  to  give  to  the  boy  merely  an  insight  into  the  different 
vocations,  in  order  to  disclose  to  him  his  bent,  if  he  has  any.  At 
the  close  of  the  8A  grade  his  series  of  experimental  courses  will 
have  been  completed. 

Commercial  Course 

A  differentiated  course  for  children  intending  to  enter  business 
has  been  established.  The  object  of  this  commercial  course  is  to 
give  the  pupils  an  understanding  of  the  simpler  business  trans- 
actions, and  ability  to  perform  the  routine  work  incidental  to  the 
conducting  of  commercial  affairs.  The  pupils  are  to  get  an  idea 
of  the  correct  performance  of  the  ordinary  tasks  that  will  be 
required  of  them,  and  a  knowledge  of  how  business  transactions 
are  recorded,  so  that  they  may  not  be  obliged  to  obtain  empirically 
all  their  knowledge  of  business.  It  is  not  proposed  to  turn  out 
stenographers,  typewriters  or  bookkeepers,  but  it  is  proposed  to 
give  pupils  taking  this  course  a  good  foundation,  and  then  to 
advise  them  to  continue  to  practise  in  the  evening  schools,  so  as 
to  be  ready  to  accept  more  responsible  positions  when  their  age 
will  warrant  an  offer. 


126 


THE   GOVERNMENT  OF   NEW    YORK    CITY 


EDUCATION 


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THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   CITY   YORK 


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DISCUSSION   OF  EDUCATION 

CLARENCE  E.  MELENEY 
Associate  Superintendent  of  Schools 

IN  the  absence  of  the  city  superintendent  of  schools  on  account  of 
illness  due  to  the  severe  stress  of  his  arduous  duties,  I  have  been  re- 
quested to  take  his  place  and  speak  of  the  educational  work  of  the  public 
school  system.  The  chairman  suggested  that  I  ''emphasize  the  prac- 
tical workings  of  our  school  machinery  from  the  lowest  grades  to  the 
highest  as  that  problem  presents  itself  to  the  board  of  superintendents." 
The  facts  and  statistics  submitted  are  a  matter  of  record  and  are  given 
as  a  background  designed  to  show  the  extent  of  our  system  of  schools 
and  its  vastness  as  an  educational  problem  as  compared  with  other  state 
and  city  school  systems.  The  views  and  opinions  must  be  considered 
as  my  own,  drawn  from  an  experience  in  the  board  of  superintendents 
of  almost  twenty  years.  Whether  the  city  superintendent  endorses 
these  views  must  be  left  for  him  to  state  if  he  wishes  to  do  so. 

The  supervising  force  of  the  New  York  school  system  comprises  the 
board  of  superintendents,  including  the  city  superintendent  and  eight 
associates;  the  board  of  examiners,  including  the  city  superintendent 
and  four  examiners;  twenty-six  district  superintendents;  the  directors 
of  departments — music,  physical  training,  drawing,  shopwork,  cooking, 
sewing  and  kindergarten;  the  inspectors  of  ungraded  classes;  special 
teachers  of  music,  physical  training  and  sewing;  the  bureau  of  attendance; 
and  the  bureau  of  reference  and  research. 

There  are  twenty-three  district  superintendents  each  having  super- 
vision of  two  local  school  board  districts.  The  average  number  of  pupils 
enrolled  in  elementary  schools  in  a  district  is  15,500.  In  Brooklyn  it 
is  over  19,000.  One  district  superintendent  has  the  supervision  and 
administration  of  evening  schools;  one  of  vacation  schools,  playgrounds 
and  recreation  centers;  one  is  assigned  to  the  supervision  of  high  schools. 

The  bureau  of  lectures  is  under  a  director  independent  of  the  board 
of  superintendents. 

The  city  is  divided  into  divisions,  two  for  high  schools  (now  under 
one  associate  city  superintendent)  and  six  for  elementary  schools  appor- 
tioned thus:  Manhattan,  2;  Brooklyn,  2;  Harlem  and  Bronx,  1 ;  Queens 
and  Richmond,  1.  At  present  the  Brooklyn  division  superintendents 
are  temporarily  assigned  to  supervision  and  organization  of  pre-voca- 
tional  activities  and  extension  work  of  high  school  pupils,  their  places 
being  taken  by  one  associate  city  superintendent. 

(130) 


EDUCATION  131 

The  teaching  force  in  day  schools  includes  3  training  school  principals 
and  120  training  school  teachers,  23  high  school  principals  and  over 
2,200  high  school  teachers,  420  elementary  school  principals  and  about 
17,500  elementary  school  teachers. 

There  are  two  vocational  schools  for  boys  and  one  trade  school  for 
girls.  There  are  schools  and  classes  for  the  blind,  deaf,  cripples,  and 
feeble-minded;  for  tubercular  and  anaemic  children.  Classes  for  conva- 
lescent children  are  operated  in  several  hospitals.  During  last  year 
there  were  114  evening  schools,  elementary,  high,  and  trade  schools, 
with  an  average  nightly  attendance  of  over  55,000  pupils.  There  were 
36  vacation  schools,  213  playgrounds  and  62  evening  recreation  centers. 

A  comparison  of  the  New  York  public  school  system  with  that  of 
other  cities  and  states,  and  with  the  rest  of  the  state  of  New  York 
may  be  interesting.  From  the  last  published  report  of  the  United 
States  commissioner  of  education,  in  the  number  of  teachers  and  pupils 
in  the  public  day  schools  New  York  city  is  four  times  as  great  as  all 
the  other  cities  of  the  state  having  a  population  of  25,000  people;  greater 
than  the  next  five  largest  cities,  Chicago,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  St.  Louis 
and  Cleveland  combined;  greater  than  all  the  cities  of  the  New  England 
states  combined;  or  of  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania;  or  of  Ohio,  Illi- 
nois and  Michigan;  or  of  the  Pacific  states  with  Missouri  and  Nebraska 
besides.  These  facts  seem  to  justify  the  number-  of  supervising  officers 
and  our  organization. 

In  1896  under  the  Pavey  law  the  New  York  city  school  system  was  re- 
organized. A  board  of  superintendents  was  established.  This  is  the 
distinctive  feature  of  the  system.  At  the  time  of  consolidation,  borough 
school  systems  were  established  on  the  same  plan,  and  in  1902  the  present 
consolidated  school  system  went  into  effect.  The  charter  confers  upon 
the  board  of  superintendents  the  following  functions: 

1.  The  nomination  of  district  superintendents,  directors,  principals 
and  teachers  of  training  schools,  principals  of  high  schools,  irrespective 
of  eligible  lists,  and  of  inspectors,  assistant  inspectors,  principals  and 
teachers  of  elementary  schools,  evening  schools,  vacation  schools  and 
playgrounds,  and  of  teachers  of  high  schools  from  eligible  lists;    pro- 
motions and  transfers  of  all  principals  and  teachers,  and  approval  of 
applications  for  increase  in  salary,  except  approval  for  superior  merit  in 
high   schools   and  training   schools,   which   is   vested   in  the  board  of 
examiners. 

2.  The  recommendation  of  grades  and  qualifications  for  licenses. 

3.  The  establishment  and  organization  of  all  kinds  and  grades  of 
schools  and  the  classification  of  pupils. 


132  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

4.  The  recommendation  of  courses  of  study  in  all  schools,  and  the 
preparation  of  syllabi. 

5.  The  recommendation  of  rules  for  the  administration  and  manage- 
ment of  schools. 

6.  The  recommendation  of  text-books  and   supplies  for  all  schools. 
In  short,  all  the  educational  proposals  to  be  acted  upon  by  the  board 
of  education  are  formulated  by  the  board  of  superintendents. 

These  recommendations  are  made  by.  the  board  of  superintendents 
upon  reports  of  standing  and  special  committees  of  the  board.  These 
committees  prepare  their  reports  upon  information  obtained  by  personal 
inspection  and  investigation  in  the  several  divisions  and  fields  of  activity 
of  the  several  members,  and  upon  reports  of  district  superintendents 
and  principals,  organizations  of  teachers,  local  school  boards,  directors 
and  bureaus.  Every  proposition  has  to  be  carefully  worked  out  and 
put  into  definite  shape  with  facts,  statistics  and  explanations  sufficient 
-to  enable  the  board  of  education  and  its  committees  to  act  intelligently. 
All  the  statistics  upon  which  the  educational  budget  for  the  general 
school  fund,  the  special  school  fund,  so  far  as  equipment  of  schools  is 
concerned,  the  corporate  stock  budget  for  sites  and  buildings  are  based, 
have  to  be  furnished  by  the  board  of  superintendents. 

To  emphasize  the  practical  workings  of  our  machinery  as  requested 
by  the  chairman,  I  will  explain  briefly  some  of  the  operations  of  the 
board  and  committees: 

The  nomination,  promotion  and  transfer  of  teachers  is  a  great  work. 
Last  year  in  the  elementary  schools  1,887  new  teachers  were  appointed 
and  2,195  other  teachers  were  transferred  or  assigned.  In  the  training 
schools  and  high  schools  355  new  teachers  were  appointed.  All  nomina- 
tions of  teachers  of  evening  schools,  vacation  schools  and  playgrounds, 
were  made  by  the  board  of  superintendents  and  approved  by  the  board 
of  education. 

The  committee  on  high  schools  and  training  schools  deals  with  high 
school  nominations.  The  committee  on  elementary  schools  nominates 
all  other  principals  and  teachers  except  those  for  evening  schools,  vaca- 
tion schools  and  trade  and  vocational  teachers.  The  Hanus  reports 
recommended  that  this  work  should  be  done  by  the  city  superintendent. 
This  would  be  an  impossible  task  with  which  he  should  not  be  burdened. 
It  requires  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  conditions  in  the  schools,  the 
nature  of  the  positions  to  be  filled,  and  the  wishes  and  preferences  of 
principals  and  candidates,  that  only  superintendents  in  close  touch 
with  the  schools  can  have,  and  it  demands  the  services  of  a  corps  of 
clerks  having  records  well  in  hand.  The  interviews  necessary  for  a 


EDUCATION  133 

complete  understanding  of  this  problem  consume  a  great  amount  of 
time. 

Consider  again  the  matter  of  recommending  text-books,  library  books 
and  supplies,  which  also  it  has  been  said  the  city  superintendent  should 
do.  Last  year  lists  of  text-books,  library  lists  and  supply  lists  were 
prepared  by  the  board  of  superintendents.  Every  book  and  article  of 
apparatus  had  to  be  examined  and  approved  by  committees  of  super- 
intendents, principals,  and  teachers  before  action  by  the  board  of  super- 
intendents and  the  board  of  education. 

New  courses  of  study  and  syllabi  for  the  high  schools,  elementary 
schools,  evening  schools,  trade  and  vocational  schools  have  been  con- 
stantly undergoing  change  and  revision.  These  are  necessary  to  meet  the 
changed  conditions  in  the  schools,  the  demands  of  the  business  world, 
the  views  and  wishes  of  the  board  of  education  and  the  natural  evolu- 
tion of  educational  theories  and  practise.  The  high  schools  are  of  three 
types,  the  general,  the  commercial  and  the  technical  and  manual  train- 
ing. Some  schools,  like  the  Manual  Training  and  Bushwick  in  Brooklyn, 
and  the  Bryant  in  Queens,  for  boys  and  girls,  embrace  all  three  types. 
The  other  high  schools  have  at  least  two  features.  Every  high  school 
having  girls  now  offers  courses  in  domestic  science  and  art,  and  by  the 
adoption  of  a  new  course  last  year  every  school  having  the  general  course 
may  also  give  commercial  work.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  even 
the  general  high  school  course  is  designed  only  to  fit  pupils  for  college 
and  other  higher  institutions.  In  our  general  course  elective  studies 
are  offered  in  modern  languages,  science,  mathematics  and  every  subject 
that  seems  to  be  necessary  for  the  equipment  of  boys  and  girls  for  com- 
plete living. 

In  my  last  annual  report  will  be  found  a  section  dealing  with  the 
scholarship  of  first  year  pupils  in  high  schools  and  a  formulation  of  the 
methods  used  in  the  high  schools  to  adapt  the  instruction  to  the  capacity 
and  ability  of  the  pupils,  prepared  by  a  committee  of  high  school  prin- 
cipals that  devoted  months  to  the  study  of  the  problem.  Everything 
that  can  be  done  by  the  principals  and  teachers  to  hold  the  students  and 
to  train  and  instruct  them  for  efficiency  in  life  is  being  done. 

I  know  of  no  city  in  the  country  where  so  liberal  a  provision  is  made 
for  high  school  students.  The  liberality  of  these  courses  taxes  the  budget 
to  the  limit  and  it  is  now  a  serious  question  whether  the  city  can  afford 
to  carry  so  rich  a  program.  The  board  of  superintendents  is  overwhelmed 
by  the  proposals  constantly  put  before  it  for  the  inauguration  of  new 
activities  in  the  high  schools,  the  elementary  schools  and  other  schools 
and  classes.  For  many  years  the  instruction  and  training  to  meet  the 


134  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

needs  of  over-age,  backward  and  defective  children  has  been  undergoing 
transformation.  We  are  now  face  to  face  with  the  problem  of  educating 
children  of  all  degrees  of  ability  and  intelligence.  The  enforcement  of 
the  compulsory  education  law  has  brought  this  about.  No  city  in  the 
country  has  made  greater  progress  in  this  line  of  work  than  has  the  city 
of  New  York. 

At  every  stage  of  advancement  we  have  been  restrained  by  the  limita- 
tions of  the  school  budget  while  at  the  .same  time  we  have  been  criti- 
cized for  lack  of  progress.  Superintendents  and  principals  have  visited 
other  cities,  studied  reports,  and  collected  information  from  all  sources 
to  enable  the  board  to  formulate  its  recommendations.  New  features 
of  school  activities  have  been  tried  in  our  schools  and  instituted  for 
experimentation.  The  problems  confronting  the  educational  department 
of  this  city  cannot  be  appreciated  by  any  persons  not  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  work  and  the  conditions  under  which  the  work  is  carried 
on.  The  amount  of  study,  investigation,  and  constructive  organization 
necessary  to  inaugurate  and  maintain  a  progressive  system  engages  the 
constant,  earnest  and  persistent  effort  of  the  department  of  education. 
A  board  of  education,  however  large  or  small,  cannot  make  all  tire  investi- 
gations and  formulate  all  the  plans  for  the  operation  of  this  school  system. 
Nor  can  one  man  as  city  superintendent  perform  the  duties  of  the  board 
of  superintendents. 

When  I  say  that  all  these  duties  and  powers  should  not  be  thrust 
upon  the  city  superintendent,  I  mean  any  city  superintendent,  whoever 
he  may  be.  He  should  be  left  free  for  larger  problems  and  unhampered 
with  the  details  of  investigation  and  formulation  of  plans.  The  distribu- 
tion of  all  this  varied  work  and  responsibility  among  the  members  of  the 
board  is  the  only  safeguard  to  the  superintendent. 


PARK  ADMINISTRATION 

CABOT  WARD 
Commissioner  of  the  Department  of  Parks 

PARK  work  is  so  many  sided  that  I  can  take  up  only  two 
phases  in  this  conference,  namely,  park  planning  and 
recreation. 

Park  work  must  necessarily  be  of  slow  growth,  the  result  of 
care,  time,  and  particular  foresight.  If  things  are  to  be  done  well, 
there  must  be  far-seeing  planning.  One  point  is  clear.  Parks 
should  be  planned  for  before — not  after — the  growth  of  the  city. 
The  reason  is  evident.  After  the  growth  of  the  city  the  expense 
of  acquiring  adequate  park  space  becomes  almost  prohibitive, 
through  the  increased  price  of  real  estate  and  the  necessity  of 
condemning  already  existing  buildings,  whereas  with  proper  fore- 
sight the  same  land  could  have  been  acquired  for  very  little. 

New  York  has  not  suffered  in  the  past  from  lack  of  foresight  in 
this  direction.  The  reason  why  we  have  our  large  parks  to.-day, 
Central  Park,  Prospect  Park,  Bronx  Park,  is  precisely  because 
groups  of  intelligent  citizens  did  think  ahead  and  had  the  broad 
vision  to  realize,  at  least  to  some  extent,  what  the  growth  of  the 
city  was  going  to  be  in  the  next  fifty  years.  As  early  as  1807  a 
commission  was  appointed  to  lay  out  the  undeveloped  area  of 
Manhattan,  and  in  1811  the  plan  which  covered  the  entire  area 
up  to  One  Hundred  Fifty-fifth  street  was  confirmed  by  the  legis- 
lature. 

The  commissioners  were  ridiculed  by  their  contemporaries  for 
their  large  estimates  of  the  growth  of  the  population  and  the  vast 
amount  of  territory  set  aside  for  park  purposes.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  their  plans  and  estimates  of  growth,  like  most  estimates 
and  plans  for  the  city  that  have  since  been  made,  were  far  too 
conservative.  The  commissioners  thought  it  not  unreasonable 
to  suppose  that  the  population  of  the  city  would  be  quadrupled 
within  a  period  of  fifty  years  (increasing  from  100,000  to  400,000). 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  at  the  close  of  the  fifty-year  period  in  1860, 
the  population  of  the  city  had  grown  to  813,669,  which  was  more 

(135) 


136  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

than  double  the  estimate  of  the  commissioners.  They  estimated, 
moreover,  that  the  city  would  extend  as  far  north  as  Thirty- 
fourth  street.  Actually  it  extended  beyond  Fifty-ninth  street. 
-  Before  1807  only  nineteen  hundred  acres  on  Manhattan  Island 
had  been  laid  out.  The  commissioners  increased  this  to  eleven 
thousand  four  hundred  acres,  or  six  times  the  area  previously 
mapped,  explaining  the  reason  that  influenced  them  as  follows: 

To  some  it  may  be  a  matter  of  surprise  that  so  much  has  been  laid 
out  as  a  city;  to  others  it  may  be  a  subject  of  merriment  that  the  com- 
missioners have  provided  space  for  a  greater  population  than  is  collected 
at  any  spot  this  side  of  China.  It  is  improbable  that  for  centuries  to  come 
the  grounds  north  of  Harlem  flat  will  be  covered  with  houses.  Yet  to 
have  come  short  of  the  extent  laid  out  might  have  defeated  just  expecta- 
tions, and  to  have  gone  further  might  have  furnished  materials  to  the 
pernicious  spirit  of  speculation. 

When  we  recall  that  at  the  time  there  was  not  a  railroad  or  transit 
line  in  existence,  we  cannot  but  admire  the  vision  of  the  men  who 
planned  for  a  great  city  to  extend  for  eight  miles  through  un- 
developed country. 

Not  only  did  our  ancestors  provide  space  fibr  large  parks,  but 
they  also  realized  the  necessity  of  providing  small  park  spaces 
in  the  crowded  portions  of  the  city,  parks  more  in  the  nature  of 
public  squares.  Even  the  earliest  plans  of  the  city  set  aside  such 
spaces  for  common  use  and  for  parade  grounds.  Bowling  Green, 
for  instance,  was  used  as  early  as  1 732  as  a  bowling  green  and  was 
laid  out  as  a  park  in  1786.  The  island  of  Manhattan  ended  at 
what  is  now  Whitehall  street.  Between  the  rocks  at  that  point 
and  Rector  street  a  number  of  batteries  were  erected  from  which 
came  the  title  of  Battery  Park.  The  park  was  actually  filled-in 
land.  Madison  Square  in  1806  was  the  site  of  an  arsenal  which 
was  later  removed  to  give  more  park  space.  TompMns  Square 
in  1866  was  a  parade  ground,  paved  in  concrete  with  the  idea  that 
it  would  be  used  as  a  common  meeting  place.  In  addition  to  these, 
we  find  in  the  plan  of  180^  a  number  of  small  parks  of  about  four 
blocks  each,  admirably  situated.  Unfortunately,  they  were 
eliminated  from  the  plan  one  by  one,  with  the  single  exception  of 
Manhattan  square,  which  is  now  the  site  of  the  American  Museum 


PARKS  AND  RECREATION  137 

of  Natural  History.  I  think  I  have  said  enough  to  show  you  that 
New  York  began  with  a  splendid  record  for  acquiring  ahead  of  its 
growth  large  open  spaces  for  park  use.  It  was  one  of  the  first 
cities  in  America  to  do  so. 

Our  far-sighted  citizens  indeed  planned  wonderfully,  considering 
that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  realize  what  modern  invention 
would  do  for  city  development.  Shall  we  be  less  far-seeing  in  our 
plans  ?  We  of  to-day  have  an  immense  advantage  and  a  golden 
opportunity  is  awaiting  us  in  park  planning,  if  we  but  seize  it. 
We  have  our  eyes  opened  to  the  effect  of  rapid  transit  upon  the 
situation.  We  are  now  in  a  position  to  prophesy  where  commissions 
and  citizens  of  the  past  have  gone  blindfolded.  Planning  now,  and 
acting  upon  the  plan,  means  getting  the  most  out  of  the  expenditures 
that  are  bound  to  be  made,  and  saving  future  expense  for  replan- 
ning,  reconstruction  and  the  correction  of  past  blunders.  It  is 
important  to  know  not  only  what  areas  will  be  definitely  needed 
for  park  purposes,  but  also  the  probable  order  in  which  the  avail- 
able park  areas  will  be  developed.  It  is  only  through  a  thorough 
understanding  of  this  situation  by  the  citizens  that  the  park 
department  can  hope  at  this  time  to  get  the  necessary  funds 
for  the  future,  so  as  to  fulfil  its  true  mission.  What  shall  we  say 
of  the  great  city  of  New  York,  that  is  spending  less  on  its  park 
maintenance  and  park  improvements  in  three  boroughs  than 
Indianapolis  with  only  two  hundred  fifty  thousand  inhabitants? 
The  city  spends  sixty  millions  a  year  for  so-called  "welfare  work." 
Far  too  small  a  proportion  of  this  is  spent  in  maintaining  and 
extending  our  park  system,  perfecting  our  recreation  facilities, 
and  improving  and  coordinating  our  playground  working  plant 
for  the  future. 

I  am  going  to  outline  briefly  the  main  features  of  the  plan  for 
park  development  that  I  am  urging  before  the  city  boards  and  civic 
societies.  These,  I  believe,  are  the  initial  steps  that  should  be 
taken  to  save  for  the  city  those  valuable  areas  of  future  park 
space  that  may  be  lost  at  any  moment  unless  they  are  now  rescued. 

First,  Central  Park  should  be  connected  with  Riverside  and 
other  park  areas.  Such  connections  would  make  it  possible  to  use 
more  intesively  the  existing  park  and  recreation  facilities.  There 
is  a  whole  chain  of  small  parks  leading  north  from  One  Hundred 


138  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

Tenth  street,  which  could  readily  be  used  as  a  nucleus  to  connect 
Central  Park  with  Highbridge  and  Washington  Bridge  parks. 

Second,  the  wonderful  western  bank  of  the  Harlem  should  be 
improved.  Here  we  have  a  speedway  now  restricted  to  the  limited 
number  of  citizens  who  indulge  in  light  wagon  and  trotting  con- 
tests. While  giving  full  weight  to  the  importance  of  this  sport, 
it  should  not  now  obstruct  a  real  public  improvement.  I  have 
therefore  drafted  a  bill  for  the  legislature  with  provisions  taking 
off  the  restrictions  on  the  speedway  so  that  it  can  be  used  like  other 
park  areas.  With  this  accomplished,  there  will  be  one  great 
western  slope  parkway  along  the  river;  for  adjoining  the  Speed- 
way is  Highbridge  Park,  undeveloped,  Washington  Park,  only 
partly  developed,  and  Fort  George  Park.  This  latter  is  easily 
available ;  for  it  consists  now  chiefly  of  an  amusement  park  whose 
only  encumbrances  are  a  number  of  small  buildings  and  shanties. 
At  this  point,  therefore,  with  only  a  small  outlay  the  city  can 
acquire  immediately  a  great  new  tract  for  intensive  use.  Such  a 
park  will  be  an  immense  asset  to  the  city,  but  the  longer  it  remains 
in  its  present  condition,  the  greater  is  the  waste  in  this  undeveloped 
territory.  These  parks  have  never  been  developed  and  coordi- 
nated. Trees  are  being  cut  down,  and  land  is  being  washed  away. 

Third,  we  should  take  in  at  once  the  territory  between  Lafayette 
Boulevard  and  the  river  as  far  up  as  Washington  Park,  that  won- 
derful wooded  point  reaching  out  to  the  river,  with  its  splendid 
view  north  and  south.  Not  one  citizen  in  a  thousand  realizes 
that  the  city  owns  none  of  the  land  between  Lafayette  Boulevard, 
which  is  a  continuation  of  Riverside  Drive,  and  the  Hudson  River. 
Any  day  buildings  may  be  put  up  by  private  citizens  on  that  long 
stretch,  ruining  our  river  front  park.  If  that  is  done  we  shall  some 
day  later  have  to  buy  this  improved  private  property  at  huge 
expense  and  tear  down  all  the  buildings.  Now  is  the  time  to  act. 

Fourth,  we  should  take  in  similarly  the  strip  north  of  Fort 
Washington  Park  for  protection  purposes,  if  for  no  other  reason. 
Inwood  Hill  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  places  in  the  whole  city, 
a  wooded,  rocky  height  where  you  look  out  across  Spuyten  Duyvil 
and  over  the  Harlem  and  the  Hudson.  That  is  a  strategic  point 
that  we  must  not  lose;  yet  during  this  last  year  it  has  been 
threatened  by  building  operations. 


PARKS  AND  RECREATION  139 

The  city  has  already  acquired  a  park  strip  near  Inwood  Hill 
(Isham  Park)  and  I  have  secured  from  the  generous  donors  about 
seventeen  more  acres  of  land.  This  park  will  run  down  to  the 
canal  not  far  from  Inwood  Hill,  and  if  we  can  only  secure  the 
latter,  this  park  strip  can  easily  be  made  continuous.  Here  in 
the  canal  we  could  perhaps  have  on  a  small  scale  the  canoeing 
facilities  which  have  made  such  wonderful  recreation  for  Detroit 
and  other  cities  of  this  country. 

Fifth,  there  is  no  doubt  that  in  the  future  Blackwell's  Island, 
which  is  clearly  no  longer  a  suitable  place  for  our  corrections  and 
charities,  will  be  transformed  into  a  park,  duplicating  that  wonder- 
ful Belle  Isle  of  Detroit,  the  admiration  of  all  recreation  experts 
of  the  world.  That  will  undoubtedly  come  in  time.  Just  at 
present  the  city  is  financially  restricted,  and  I  would  not  advocate 
a  plan  for  immediate  transformation  of  Blackwell's  Island.  But 
these  things  should  all  be  put  on  a  definite  plan.  All  the  authori- 
ties should  agree  that  this  is  what  the  city  is  going  to  do,  so  that 
millions  may  not  be  spent  in  future  in  removing  structures  and 
buying  at  increased  values. 

Sixth,  we  should  connect  the  Speedway  with  the  Dyckman 
street  terminus  of  Lafayette  Boulevard,  and  join  Manhattan  to 
The  Bronx  by  an  additional  road.  There  is  an  easy  possibility 
of  making  a  boulevard  from  Washington  Bridge  across  to  connect 
with  the  Hudson  Riverside  Park. 

Seventh,  a  plan  has  been  worked  out  by  which  the  Brooklyn 
park  system  could  be  better  connected  and  coordinated  by  a  series 
of  boulevards,  and  a  great  driveway  has  been  laid  out  to  skirt  the 
territory  along  the  shore  of  Jamaica  Bay.  Very  few  of  our  citizens 
realize  that  there  is  rapidly  approaching  completion  a  twin  brother 
of  Riverside  Park  which  runs  along  the  eastern  side  of  the  Upper 
Bay  and  Narrows.  This  will  form  a  most  important  connecting 
link  in  the  park  system  of  Brooklyn. 

Eighth,  plans  should  be  promptly  laid  to  secure  adequate  park 
facilities  for  the  borough  of  Richmond.  What  shall  we  say  of 
a  city  with  a  congestion  problem  like  ours,  a  city  which  has  spent 
millions  in  retrieving  past  lack  of  foresight  in  purchasing  land  for 
recreation  purposes,  and  which  even  now  is  not  awake  to  the  need 
of  seizing  the  opportunity  in  the  borough  of  Richmond  before  it  is 


140  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

too  late?  On  Staten  Island  the  park  space  is  barely  adequate  for 
present  needs,  and  there  is  no  provision  whatever  for  the  future 
growth  of  the  borough.  There  are  large  tracts  of  land  which  in 
their  natural  beauty  are  remarkably  adapted  to  park  use.  These 
tracts  are  as  yet  unimproved  and  can  be  secured  by  the  city  at 
comparatively  low  cost.  The  civic  bodies  in  Richmond  are  joining 
with  me  to  see  if  we  cannot  all  agree  upon  a  plan,  and  then  get  the 
board  of  estimate  to  adopt  it.  Staten  Island  is  bound  in  the 
near  future  to  be  intensively  built  up.  The  natural  topography 
makes  it  easy  to  foresee  what  would  be  ideal  park  land.  If  this 
plan  can  be  worked  out  we  may  now  secure  that  land  at  low  cost 
for  the  city  of  the  future. 

The  total  park  area  of  New  York  is  7,640  acres.  This  means 
3.81%  of  the  total  area  of  the  city,  or  an  acre  for  every  716  of  the 
population.  Philadelphia  has  an  acre  for  every  204  inhabitants; 
Boston,  for  every  100;  Paris,  for  every  505.  So  you  see  that 
New  York  is  quite  a  distance  behind  most  of  the  great  cities 
in  providing  and  developing  park  area  for  its  congested  population. 

I  wish  there  were  time  here  to  consider  the  larger  metropolitan 
area  around  New  York,  and  the  park  spaces  and  recreation  for 
the  population  of  say  seven  million  people  that  might  be  com- 
prehended in  the  metropolitan  section.  I  believe  our  public 
should  be  better  acquainted  with  the  wonderful  park  tract  in 
New  Jersey  back  of  the  Oranges,  the  Interstate  Park  along  the 
Hudson,  with  newly-developed  Bear  Mountain  reservation, 
and  the  Bronx  River  Parkway  rapidly  approaching  completion, 
extending  from  the  northern  boundary  of  The  Bronx,  fifteen  miles 
up  the  Bronx  River  to  the  north.  But  such  considerations  will 
have  to  await  some  future  opportunity,  since  I  wish  to  take  up  at 
this  time  certain  considerations  regarding  the  playground  question. 

The  first  playground  in  the  modern  sense  was  started  along  the 
Charles  river  in  Boston.  The  movement  started  slowly  at  first, 
and  it  had  no  development  of  importance  until  Chicago  started 
its  great  system  of  playgrounds  and  playground  parks.  This 
example  has  been  followed  in  greater  or  less  degree  all  over  the 
country.  New  York  city  was  early  in  the  field.  In  1897  an 
advisory  committee  rr.ade  an  exhaustive  report  on  the  playground 
situation,  holding  that  the  lack  of  space  for  play  had  created  a 


PARKS  AND  RECREATION  141 

sense  of  hostility  between  the  children  and  the  guardians  of  public 
order,  thus  leading  to  the  growth  of  the  criminal  class.  The 
board  of  education  some  years  ago  adopted  a  policy  of  providing 
recreation  space  out-of-doors  adjacent  to  its  schoolhouses.  Dur- 
ing the  present  administration  New  York  city  has  acquired  a 
great  deal  of  playground  space  throughout  the  five  boroughs. 

I  believe  that  New  York  should,  for  the  time  being,  concentrate 
all  recreation  facilities  under  the  park  department  and  the  board 
of  education,  working  out  greater  co-operation  between  these  two 
organizations.  With  this  idea  of  concentration  in  mind,  the  park 
department  has  this  year  taken  over  the  recreation  piers  formerly 
run  by  the  dock  department,  and  some  recreation  playgrounds 
formerly  controlled  by  the  water  department.  We  have  also 
developed  playgrounds  over  and  under  the  bridges,  obtaining  this 
space  from  the  bridge  department.  We  have  likewise  secured 
vacant  real  estate  areas  in  crowded  districts  lent  the  city  by  their 
owners  so  that  this  department  could  turn  them  into  playlots 
in  which  we  direct  play.  We  have  tried  using  the  armories  for 
play  facilities,  and  in  countless  ways  we  are  securing  additional 
play  space.  The  back-yard  playground  is  particularly  interesting 
to  me  because  there  we  have  got  the  owners  to  co-operate,  and 
through  the  common  use  of  the  city  back-yards  within  a  city 
block  we  have  been  able  in  some  cases  to  get  all  the  inhabitants 
of  the  block  interested  in  different  civic  movements.  In  this 
way  the  back-yard  may  become  a  sort  of  "civic  center." 

In  coordinating  recreation  under  the  park  department  we 
have  been  eliminating  duplication  of  facilities.  The  next  step  is 
to  secure  complete  co-operation  between  our  work  and  that  of  the 
board  of  education.  Some  day  we  ought  to  bring  it  about  that 
some  one  central  body,  be  it  the  board  of  education,  or  some  other, 
shall  have  control  of  all  recreational  facilities  of  whatever  character. 
That  should  be  the  ultimate  aim,  but  at  present  we  shall  take  a 
long  step  forward  if  we  can  unite  our  scattered  facilities  under 
two  heads. 

The  playgrounds  should  be  neighborhood  centers  serving  as 
nuclei  for  the  common  life  of  the  local  community.  This  should 
be  the  final  stage  in  the  development  of  small  parks,  and  whenever 
opportunity  offers  we  should  reconstruct  the  small  park  so  as  to 


142  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

meet  the  needs  of  the  present  day.  In  the  small  parks  we  must 
consider  that  the  people  who  use  the  park  treat  it  as  their  sitting 
room,  since  they  are  often  restricted  by  family  conditions  from 
going  more  than  a  few  squares  from  their  homes.  A  great  many 
open  spaces  have  already  been  mad,e  into  small  parks,  yet  we  need 
many  more  open  spaces  in  certain  parts  of  the  town,  to  provide 
meeting  places  for  the  exchange  of  ideas  and  to  furnish  facilities 
for  other  neighborhood  activities.  The  open  space  should  be  to 
the  town  and  the  neighborhood  what  the  old  village  green  was  to 
the  village.  The  small  parks  should  be  redesigned  and  some  of 
them  should  be  converted  into  open  paved  spaces,  such  as  are 
found  in  European  cities.  In  every  case  the  object  should  be  to 
adapt  the  park  to  the  actual  needs  of  the  people. 

As  the  small  parks  are  made  civic  centers  the  civic  spirit  of  the 
neighborhood  is  aroused.  People  get  to  know  each  other  better. 
They  come  to  their  concerts,  they  have  folk  dances,  by  means  of 
which  they  get  into  better  touch  with  their  children's  education, 
and  they  are  welded  together  in  the  consciousness  of  common 
interests.  What  is  more  and  more  important  in  a  big  city  is  that 
each  man  should  come  to  feel  that  his  street  has  a  particular 
significance  for  him,  that  his  home  is  something  in  which  to  take 
pride,  that  his  neighborhood  park  belongs  to  him  and  that  an 
enemy  of  that  park  is  an  enemy  of  his  own.  Small  parks  in  con- 
gested areas  should  be  used  as  centers  for  the  development  of  a 
true  neighborhood  spirit. 

To-day  it  is  hard  to  use  them  as  such  instruments  because 
they  are  not  properly  designed  for  such  purposes.  Wherever 
possible  I  have  tried  to  modify  the  layout  of  the  parks  to  serve 
the  needs  of  the  present  day.  Very  often,  for  example,  a  path  has 
been  worn  between  two  points  where  the  people  wish  to  go.  In 
such  places,  the  department  has  for  years  attempted  unsuccess- 
fully to  preserve  the  grass.  I  have  frankly  graveled  these  places 
and  cut  paths  where  the  landscape  architect  considers  this  can  be 
done  without  sacrifice  of  the  landscape  features. 

However  we  look  upon  it,  the  playground  movement  has 
forced  upon  the  park  department  a  work  that  is  definitely  educa- 
tional in  its  nature.  This  work  we  must  face.  Children  receive 
a  larger  part  of  their  real  education  in  these  playgrounds.  There- 


PARKS  AND  RECREATION  143 

fore,  since  Recreation — with  a  capital  R — is  sufficiently  important 
to  be  supported  at  public  expense,  the  citizens  have  a  right  to  expect 
corresponding  benefit  to  the  city.  We  must  see  to  it  that  the 
playgrounds  do  not  follow  out  the  prophecy  of  their  opponents 
and  cater  to  pleasure  in  the  sense  of  mere  relaxation.  It  is  our 
duty  to  make  sure  they  are  building  up  a  better  type  of  citizen. 

The  idea  of  the  educational  value  of  play  did  not  originate  with 
ourselves.  Plato  was  the  first  writer  who  said  distinctly  that 
education  must  take  in  the  whole  of  life.  He  attached  great 
importance  to  intelligent  guidance  of  play.  Of  course  under 
"play"  he  included  music,  gymnastic,  and  other  arts  whose 
influence  he  felt  to  be  a  direct  one  on  the  development  of  those 
attributes  of  "restraint  and  courage"  which  in  his  eyes  were  the 
qualities  most  to  be  striven  for  in  the  formation  of  character. 
In  the  Republic,  Plato  deals  at  some  length  with  the  spirit  of  law- 
lessness "in  the  form  of  amusement"  which  easily  steals  in  "and 
at  first  sight  appears  harmless,"  but  "little  by  little  this  spirit  of 
license,  finding  a  home,  imperceptibly  penetrates  into  manners 
and  customs,  whence,  issuing  with  greater  force,  it  invaides  con- 
tracts between  man  and  man,  and  from  contracts,  goes  on  to  laws 
and  constitutions,  in  utter  recklessness,  ending  at  last  by  an  over- 
throw of  all  rights  private  as  well  as  public."  "Our  youth,"  he 
says  again,  "should  be  trained  from  the  first  in  a  stricter  system, 
for  if  their  amusements  become  lawless,  they  can  never  grow  up 
into  well-conducted  and  virtuous  citizens."  On  the  other  hand, 
"when  they  have  made  a  good  beginning  at  play,  and  by  the  help 
of  music  have  gained  the  habit  of  good  order,  then  this  habit  of 
good  order  .  .  .  will  accompany  them  in  all  their  actions,  and  be 
a  principle  of  growth  to  them." 

Thus  the  playground,  in  the  eyes  of  Plato,  should  be  a  spot 
where  definite  training  and  guidance  is  given.  His  own  rules  were 
not  merely  of  a  general  nature,  but  went  into  the  most  minute 
details  as  to  the  kinds  of  art  and  music  that  were  demoralizing 
to  youth,  as  to  what  manner  of  art  would  bring  out  the  traits  of 
the  ideal  citizen,  as  conceived  by  him. 

This  brings  us  to  a  fundamental  difficulty  that  at  once  confronts 
us  regarding  the  direction  to  be  given  to  "play"  in  this  city. 
Plato  had  a  definite  conception  of  the  type  of  citizen  he  wished  to 


144  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

evolve;  his  regulations  were  devised  with  a  view  to  producing 
that  particular  type  of  citizen.  What  type  of  citizen,  precisely, 
are  we  aiming  to  produce  to-day?  We  have  all  the  machinery 
at  hand  for  producing  him — but  what  is  he  to  be?  Just  what 
are  we  trying  to  produce?  You  will  answer,  no  doubt,  "a  true 
American  citizen."  You  will  say:  "These  matters  are  remote, 
they  cannot  affect  directly  the  concrete  playground  problems  that 
come  up  from  day  to  day."  On  the  contrary,  they  affect  them 
materially.  I  will  give  you  a  few  examples. 

As  you  know,  there  is  an  immense  amount  of  agitation  for  more 
playgrounds.  One  set  of  agitators  considers  the  purpose  of  the 
playground  to  be  mere  amusement;  it  is  a  place  to  herd  the 
children  so  as  to  keep  them  off  the  streets.  Play,  in  their  eyes, 
must  be  completely  spontaneous;  there  must  be  no  regulation  at 
all.  What  does  that  lead  to?  At  best,  to  mere  idleness.  At 
worst,  to  mob-rule,  the  crushing  of  the  weaker  element  by  the 
stronger — in  a  word,  to  the  rule  of  the  bully.  A  second  group 
considers  the  playground  as  a  place  for  athletics  only,  for  mere 
muscular  development.  A  third  .group  thinks  of  them  as  a  place 
for  instilling  the  spirit  of  co-operation  through  games,  properly 
ordered,  or  for  cultivating  a  sense  of  ordered  motion  through  folk 
dancing  and  other  such  movements. 

In  other  words,  there  are  plenty  of  ideas  floating  about,  but 
very  little  focusing  of  those  ideas.  If  we  are  to  build  up  a  con- 
structive playground  policy,  there  must  be,  back  of  that  policy, 
a  clear  intellectual  conception  of  our  ultimate  aim.  If  we  have 
not  decided  upon  the  harbor  to  which  we  are  bound,  even  the  most 
excellent  navigator's  chart,  the  most  delicately  adjusted  compass 
will  avail  us  nothing.  We  shall  continue  merely  to  drift,  and  to 
drift  at  the  public  expense. 

The  playground  is  not  a  panacea.  Out  of  it  will  come  just  as 
much  as  we  put  into  it,  and  nothing  more.  I  would  even  go  farther 
than  this  and  state  that  in  my  opinion  if  we  do  not  use  the  play- 
ground for  development  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  we  may  well 
expect  the  playground  to  become  a  positive  evil.  We  realize 
to-day,  better  than  in  the  days  of  Plato,  the  vital  part  that  the 
imitative  faculties  play  in  the  development  of  the  child.  We 
also  know  that  the  imitative  force  of  a  model  works  in  inverse 


PARKS  AND  RECREATION  145 

ratio  to  its  distance  from  the  child.  In  a  word,  the  most  valuable 
example  to  a  child  from  a  psychological  standpoint  is  the  example 
of  the  boy  and  girl  just  a  little  older  than  himself.  It  is  also  the 
•  most  dangerous.  Turn  these  children  loose,  without  supervision, 
in  an  empty  playground  and  what  will  be  the  model  held  up  for 
their  imitation?  The  successful  bully,  who  will  at  once  assume 
control  of  play  activities.  This  we  must  avoid  at  all  costs,  even 
at  cost  of  moving  a  trifle  more  slowly  in  opening  playgrounds,  in 
order  that  proper  supervision  may  first  be  provided. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  importance  is  great  of  letting  the  children 
come  in  contact  with  principles  of  fair  play  and  honor  among  their 
own  contemporaries.  It  is  of  more  practical  value  in  many  cases 
than  any  amount  of  theory.  A  respect  for  the  rights  of  others, 
and  their  own  position  as  part  of  an  organism,  not  as  a  lawless 
unit — this  is  the  least  that  the  playground  should  foster,  and  it 
will  do  so  only  if  it  is  in  the  hands  of  a  proper  director.  By  this 
I  do  not  mean  the  mere  need  of  teaching  children  how  to  play, 
but  the  absolute  necessity  of  teaching  them  to  play  fairly  and 
honorably.  This  is  the  reason  why  I  am  not  in  favor  of  opening 
new  playgrounds  more  quickly  than  we  can  provide  supervision 
for  them.  It  is  true  that  any  playground  keeps  children  off  the 
streets  to  a  certain  extent — though  less  so  than  is  popularly 
imagined  by  those  who  do  not  investigate.  It  is  a  matter  of  com- 
mon experience  to  see  a  playground  standing  empty  while  the 
nearby  streets  are  packed  with  children  at  play,  the  reason  being 
not  far  to  seek — the  street  provides  excitement  and  variety  which 
the  emply  play  space  cannot  rival. 

My  policy  in  this  matter  may  therefore  be  summed  up  roughly 
as  follows:  We  need  a  more  definite  intellectual  conception  as  to 
the  type  of  citizen  to  be  produced,  and  here  we  expect  help  from 
the  thinking  men  and  women  of  the  community ;  we  need  policies 
directly  planned  to  bring  out  the  desirable  qualities ;  and  then  we 
need  to  proceed  to  open  playgrounds  as  rapidly  as  is  consistent 
with  proper  handling  of  the  children  committed  to  our  care. 

With  the  tremendous  congestion  existing  in  New  York,  our 
recreation  problem  is  perhaps  the  'most  serious  one  to  be  faced 
anywhere,  and  an  immediate  consideration  of  how  to  make  our 
playground  asset  of  the  greatest  use  involves  the  question  of  the 


146  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

method  of  obtaining  the  very  highest  type  of  play  leader.  Let  us 
therefore,  as  a  first  step  toward  meeting  this  problem,  strive  to 
give  the  leaders  a  definite  aim,  toward  the  accomplishment  of  which 
they  can  direct  their  work. 


RECREATIONAL  ACTIVITIES   OF   THE   DEPARTMENT 
OF  EDUCATION 

C.  WARD  CRAMPTON 

Director  of  Physical  Training,  Greater  New  York 

Organization 

THE  board  of  education  is  composed  of  members  appointed 
by  the  mayor  for  a  term  of  years.  They  are  controlled 
by  the  charter  of  the  city  of  New  York  and  they  work 
under  their  own  by-laws.  They  engage  academic  and  technical 
experts  who  build,  manage  and  direct  the  schools.  The  head  of 
the  academic  department  is  Wm.  H.  Maxwell,  city  superintendent 
of  schools.  Under  his  direction  are  the  associate  city  superin- 
tendents and  district  superintendents,  the  principals  and  teachers 
of  schools  and  the  directors  of  special  branches.  One  of  the  district 
superintentents  is  assigned  to  the  management  of  evening  recrea- 
tion centers  and  vacation  playgrounds.  The  director  of  physical 
training  has  charge  of  the  instruction  in  physical  training,  play 
and  athletics  in  all  schools,  the  management  of  after-school 
athletics  and  jurisdiction  over  all  matters  relating  to  the  health 
of  teachers  and  pupils. 

Physical  Training  and  Athletics 

Because  the  department  of  education  controls  a  large  fraction 
of  child  life  it  must  take  cognizance  of  the  need  of  recreation. 
Seven  hundred  thousand  children  are  in  its  care  for  eight  thousand 
hours  during  the  years  between  six  and  fourteen.  The  function 
of  recreation  is  three-fold.  First,  it  is  essential  to  maintenance 
of  the  child's  immediate  health,  to  his  sound  organic  development 
and  to  his  future  health  and  happiness.  Second,  education  by 
recreation  is  the  normal  biological  mode  of  instruction.  By  it 
the  child  gains  motor  facility  and  manual  power  and  learns  in  mimic 
form  of  adult  life.  Third,  its  importance  is  social.  By  recreation, 
children  learn  to  adjust  themselves  to  other  children,  and  develop 
their  own  individualities.  Without  this,  they  would  approach 
adult  life  without  a  normal  basis  for  social  relations.  Play  is  a 

(147) 


148 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 


natural  laboratory  of  social  training.  The  community  that  fails 
to  provide  for  its  children  the  salutary  benefits  of  play  may  be 
assured  that  it  will  bear  the  burden  of  a  largely  increased  juvenile 
delinquency  and  future  criminality,  that  it  will  develop  an  anemic, 
unstable  and  vicious  generation. 

Method  and  Time 

During  the  school  day,  one-third  of  the  time  of  the  first  year 
is  given  to  physical  training  and  recreation.  This  proportion 
diminishes  to  one-sixteenth  in  the  eighth  year.  This  is  somewhat 
insufficient.  During  this  time  the  children  learn  forms  of  play 
natural  to  their  successive  stages  under  natural  conditions,  which 
under  present  conditions  they  could  not  otherwise  do.  The  forms  of 
play  thus  learned  go  over  into  life  and  are  practised  outside  of 
school.  The  following  schedule  shows  the  minimum  time  which 
should  be  given  to  motor  recreation : 

Percent  of 
Age         Waking  Hours  Type 

1-  3  80%  Baby  play 

3-6  75%  Run  about  play 

6-8  60%  Quiet,   chase,   singing  and  sense  training 

games 

8-10  50%  Individual  games,  grace  and  skill,  walking 

10-12  40%  Same,  throwing  and  running  emphasized, 

team  games 
12-16  20%  Team    games.       Beginning    athletics    of 

mild  type 

16-18  15%  Athletics  and  athletic  games 

Adult  5%  Athletic  games  of  diminishing  vigor 

Old  Age        15%  Games  of  motor  skill  and  walking 

For  children  below  fourteen,  New  York  city  must  needs  provide 
for  365,000,000  hours  of  play  in  places  that  are  fit  and  safe.  To 
some  extent  they  must  also  provide  equipment  and  supervision. 
At  present,  through  the  park  department,  playgrounds,  the  depart- 
ment of  education  with  its  athletic  centers  and  vacation  play- 
grounds, and  private  recreation  organizations,  approximately 
24,000,000  hours  are  provided.  The  remainder  is  left  to  chance, 


PARKS  AND  RECREATION  149 

influenced  by  the  rapidly  decreasing  number  of  vacant  lots  and 
the  rapidly  increasing  hazards  of  the  street. 

Athletic  Centers 

The  most  definite  thing  that  has  been  done  in  several  years  to 
meet  this  recreation  need  is  the  development  of  the  athletic  center. 
Some  years  ago  the  playground  was  vacant  after  three  o'clock, 
and  the  street  outside  the  playground  was  covered  with  children 
playing.  An  experiment  was  made;  twenty  centers  were  opened, 
and  experienced  teachers  who  taught  in  the  schools  were  put  in 
charge.  The  experiment  succeeded.  The  board  of  estimate 
granted  funds,  and  now  there  are  one  hundred  sixty-three  centers 
open  with  an  attendance  of  about  one  hundred  fifty  thousand 
per  week,  or  a  total  of  about  six  million  hours  a  year.  There  is 
no  cost  for  rent  and  exceedingly  little  cost  for  upkeep.  Children 
are  taken  from  the  physically  dangerous  and  morally  unsafe  street. 
Boys  are  getting  athletic  training  instead  of  criminal  training. 
Athletic  centers  probably  save  one  child  every  three  weeks  from 
death  and  one  child  every  week  from  serious  injury. 

Types  of  Athletics 

There  are  two  forms,  intensive  and  extensive.  Under  natural 
conditions,  the  former  reaches  but  few  boys,  and  these  few  need 
athletics  least.  A  single  exceptional  athlete  already  physically 
strong  may  receive  the  attention  and  training  that  should  be  given 
to  a  thousand  boys.  On  the  other  hand,  extensive  athletics  seek 
to  put  all  boys  in  the  hygienic  athletic  training  which  is  the  real 
motive  for  school-boy  athletics.  Of  extensive  athletics  there  are 
two  forms ;  the  first  is  a  group  competition  in  which  whole  classes 
of  boys  combine  their  efforts  to  make  a  class  average  record,  which 
is  the  basis  of  competition  in  comparison  with  other  class  records. 
The  second  is  competition  against  standards.  A  series  of  standards 
is  set  up  in  chinning,  jumping  and  running.  A  boy  who  makes  a 
satisfactory  record  is  awarded  an  inexpensive  bronze  silver  badge, 
which  he  proudly  wears.  To  get  this  honor,  a  boy  must  also  have 
good  scholarship  and  good  military  posture.  Folk  dances  adopted 
from  the  European  dances  and  modified  group  athletic  competition 
characterize  the  work  for  girls,  who  are  carefully  shielded  from 


150  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

individual  competition  and  from  personal  display  before  mixed 
groups  of  spectators. 

Ideals 

It  is  the  purpose  of  the  combined  departments  of  physical  train- 
ing, educational  hygiene  and  athletics  to  care  for  the  health  of 
the  city's  school  children,  to  develop  a  vigorous  organic  equip- 
ment, to  inculcate  a  high  degree  of  motor  competence,  and  to  use 
childhood  for  social  training  for  adult  life.  This  set  of  ideals  has 
led  through  investigation  and  experiment  to  the  formulation  of 
the  administrative  program,  the  recreation  phase  of  which  has 
been  briefly  sketched. 


DISCUSSION  OF  PARKS  AND  RECREATION 

HOWARD  BRADSTREET,  President  of  the  Association  of  Neighborhood 
Workers : 

While  Mr.  Ward  was  saying  that  we  have  one  acre  of  parks  for 
every  seven  hundred  fifty  people,  I  wished  it  were  possible  for  you  to  see 
the  number  of  people  in  lower  Manhattan  who  make  application  for  their 
share  of  the  space.  Certain  demands  that  we  make  in  that  part  of  town 
are  characteristic  of  all  people  of  the  city,  whether  they  live  in  congested 
districts  or  not. 

In  the  first  place,  we  want  a  place  for  the  small  people  to  go;  they  now 
go  on  the  street.  It  would  be  very  fine  if  there  were  small  parks,  but 
there  are  not,  excepting  two  or  three,  which  are  used  to  capacity.  I 
endorse  heartily  the  commisioner's  statement  about  acquiring  property 
while  it  is  yet  unbuilt,  but  I  doubt  its  practicability.  An  agitation  to  buy 
a  park  cheaply  over  in  the  Bronx  is  met  by  the  statement  that  there  is  no 
need  for  a  park  there.  A  demand  for  a  park  in  lower  Manhattan  always 
evokes  the  question,  Why  begin  an  agitation  in  a  crowded  section? 
Between  the  two  objections  we  do  nothing. 

The  second  demand  of  our  neighborhood  is  for  athletic  fields.  We  now 
use  Van  Cortlandt  Park,  which  has  to  be  reached  from  our  section  of  the 
city  by  an  hour's  ride  on  the  elevated  road  passing  through  gangs  of 
different  nationalities.  That  adds  excitement  to  the  trip.  Aside  from 
Van  Cortlandt  there  is  Curtis  Field  on  Staten  Island,  and  even  more 
restricted,  Pelham  Bay  Park. 

The  third  of  the  needs  of  our  section  is  for  camping  places.  For  camping 
sites  we  cannot  look  to  New  York  city  within  its  city  limits  except  for 
Pelham  Bay  and  Rockaway,  but  must  look  over  to  New  Jersey  and  the 
Palisades  shore.  We  are  looking  this  summer  with  the  greatest  of  interest 
at  the  development  of  the  state  park  back  of  Haverstraw,  running  from 
there  north  back  of  Bear  Mountain  and  almost  to  West  Point.  That 
park  is  being  developed  for  the  people.  It  is  possible  to  camp  out  there. 
It  is  in  a  natural  state  and  should  be  kept  so.  If  the  city  is  looking  way 
ahead,  it  is  desirable  to  purchase  grounds  outside  the  city  limits  such  as 
already  exist  at  Ashokan  Dam,  and  let  them  be  used  for  summer  camping 
purposes. 

My  next  point  deals  with  the  administration  'of  the  parks.  The  appro- 
priation for  school  recreation  work  last  year  was  cut  in  half.  There 
are  other  cuts  in  the  budget  which  are  deplorable.  To  be  sure,  real 

(151) 


152  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

estate  can  not  stand  more  taxation.  Very  good — but  neither  will  we 
stand  a  cutting  down  in  things  which  we  wish  and  which  are  proper  for 
us*  to  have.  It  is  for  our  statesmen  to  get  added  sources  of  income  and 
see  that  these  facilities  are  provided.  Again,  why  should  the  restaurants 
on  park  property,  like  the  Claremont,  be  let  to  private  concerns,  which 
serve  only  the  wealthy  at  high  prices?  There  are  buildings  in  Central 
Park,  in  Van  Cortlandt  Park,  in  Pelham  Bay  Park,  in  many  of  the  parks 
of  the  city,  in  fact,  which  should  by  direct  public  control  through  the 
park  department  be  made  open  to  the  public,  so  that  prices  may  be  made 
moderate  for  moderate  purses.  If  there  are  people  who  must  have  a 
five-  or  ten-dollar  dinner,  the  automobile  will  quickly  take  them  where 
they  can  get  excellent  accommodations  without  occupying  public  park 
property. 

Finally,  the  attractive  automobile  roads  that  have  been  mentioned  are 
of  course  fine  things,  but  personally,  I  feel  sorry  when  I  go  down  to  the 
Narrows  and  see  an  automobile  road  that  will  soon  fill  in  the  little  coves 
and  beachy  places  where  mothers  and  babies  and  children  and  fathers 
now  go  of  a  Sunday  to  camp  out  on  the  shore.  I  regret  very  much  the 
tendency  to  develop  the  elaborate  parts  of  our  plan  at  cost  of  the  more 
cozy  and  homelike  places. 


MR.  W.  B.  VAN  INGEN: 

I  have  taken  an  interest  in  the  parks  and  primarily  in  Central 
Park,  because  I  believe  it  to  be  the  most  beautiful  object  in  the 
United  States  created  by  man.  The  extreme  beauty  of  the  park  led 
me  to  inquire  how  it  came  to  be  what  it  is,  and  my  investigations  dis- 
closed the  fact  that  the  credit  belongs  to  the  original  designers,  Olmsted 
and  Vaux.  Their  plans  were  bitterly  attacked,  and  the  execution  has 
suffered  much  from  the  ravages  of  successive  park  commissioners,  most 
of  whom  were  either  men  looking  for  a  soft  job,  or  what  is  worse,  uplifters. 
Uplifters  are  the  most  troublesome  persons  that  we  have  except  the  Tweed 
gang;  and  the  Tweed  gang  and  the  uplifters  work  on  identical  lines  for  the 
destruction  of  the  parks;  one  with  a  bad  motive  and  one  with  a  sup- 
posedly good  motive.  In  the  present  commissioner,  happily,  we  have 
an  intelligent  man  who  is  conscientiously  trying  to  adhere  to  the  original 
plans. 

The  original  plan  for  Central  Park  was  to  have  no  buildings  in  it  save 
those  absolutely  essential  for  actual  physical  comfort,  but  to  have  it 
surrounded  by  public  buildings  wherever  they  were  necessary.  Manhat- 
tan Square,  the  site  of  the  present  Museum  of  Natural  History,  containing 


PARKS  AND  RECREATION  153 

eighteen  or  twenty  acres,  is  an  example.  A  site  extending  from  Sixty- 
sixth  street  to  Sixty-eighth  street  on  Fifth  avenue,  running  back  to  Third 
avenue,  called  Hamilton  Park  at  the  time  that  the  park  property  was 
obtained,  and  containing  eighteen  or  twenty  acres,  would  have  been  the 
ideal  place  for  the  Metropolitan  Museum.  Instead  they  are  taking  up  the 
ground  which  we  want  for  some  other  purpose,  disregarding  the  wise  plans 
of  the  designers. 

Each  commissioner,  having  a  four  years'  term  of  office,  seems  to  be 
afflicted  with  the  idea  that  he  must  do  something.  So  he  neglects  all  that 
the  previous  commisioner  did,  and  does  something  himself,  only  to  have 
his  work  neglected  by  the  commissioner  that  succeeds  him.  In  the  south 
of  Ninety-seventh  street  transverse  road,  one  of  the  ideal  meadow  spaces 
of  the  world  was  turned  by  a  recent  park  commissioner  into  a  tennis  court, 
the  commissioner  stating  that  he  wished  to  have  one  of  the  finest  tennis 
courts  in  the  world.  That  sounds  fine,  but  we  lacked  the  park  space,  and 
to-day  the  finest  tennis  court  in  the  world  has  no  iron  and  no  netting 
around  it.  Some  day  it  is  bound  to  be  restored  to  the  children  and  not 
left  to  the  professionals.  The  whole  incident  is  a  piece  of  nonsense.  In 
fact,  the  whole  history  of  Central  Park  is  one  series  of  accidents,  one 
series  of  bits  of  nonsense,  occasioned  entirely  by  the  fact  that  a  man  thinks 
he  has  to  do  something,  though  he  knows  nothing  at  all  about  the  subject 
or  about  the  history  of  the  park. 

This  state  of  affairs  cannot  be  corrected  unless  you  get  the  idea  that  the 
park  system  is  a  sequential  affair.  The  condition  is  not  going  to  be 
remedied  by  changing  this  and  changing  that.  But  if  you  establish  an 
idea  that  the  thing  is  a  permanent  arrangement,  then  you  may  bring  up 
your  argument  as  to  why  this  or  that  should  be  done.  It  is  all  very  well 
to  talk  about  the  park  being  used  for  the  people.  In  1862,  according  to 
actual  count,  ten  million  people  entered  the  park;  in  1872,  nearly  eleven 
million.  It  is  perfectly  reasonable  to  suppose  that  at  least  twenty  million 
people  a  year  enter  the  park  now.  Therefore  to  talk  about  a  certain  set 
of  boys  playing  baseball  in  there  and  that  being  the  people,  in  the  face  of 
twenty  million  visitors  a  year,  is  simply  talking  nonsense  under  fancy 
names  and  under  a  sort  of  catch-word  phrases.  I  am  just  as  much  one 
of  the  people  as  though  I  were  a  boy  playing  baseball. 

Of  all  things  that  men  create,  the  most  permanent  is  a  park,  because 
everything  else  that  man  makes  is  made  of  material  that  disintegrates 
with  time,  but  a  park  renews  itself  every  day.  Stick  to  your  plan,  then; 
develop  that  plan,  and  you  have  the  most  permanent  thing  in  the  world. 
Olmsted  and  Vaux  in  planning  Central  Park  looked  far  into  the  future. 
"If  we  had  listened  to  them  at  that  time,  we  should  now  have  had  this  park 


154  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK   CITY 

extending  from  the  Palisades  right  through  across  the  Fifty-ninth  street 
bridge  straight  down  to  the  ocean. 

All  these  facts  that  I  tell  you  are  down  in  records.  Those  records  should 
be  brought  out  and  correlated,  so  that  whenever  a  commissioner  goes 
into  office,  if  he  wants  any  information,  all  that  is  necessary  is  to  look  at 
the  records.  A  consistent  and  progressive  administration  would  thus  be 
made  possible. 


FINANCIAL    ADMINISTRATION,    BUDGET    AND    TAX 

RATE 

WILLIAM   A.  PRENDERGAST 

Comptroller  of  the  City  of  New  York 

A'  the  present  time  there  is  considerable  public  inquiry 
regarding  the  magnitude  of  our  city  outlay.  There  is  also 
displeasure  upon  the  part  of  some  of  our  citizens  that  this 
outlay  has  reached  so  large  a  figure.  It  is  not  my  purpose  to 
apologize  for  what  we  are  spending,  but  rather  to  explain  in  a 
simple  way  the  facts  of  the  expenditure  and  some  of  the  reasons 
that  have  led  to  it.  A  budget,  according  to  our  interpretation  in 
the  city  of  New  York,  consists  of  a  statement  of  the  probable 
expenditures  for  the  succeeding  year.  These  expenditures  are 
based  to  a  great  extent  upon  past  experience,  so  that  our  budget 
in  large  part  is  based  on  fact,  not  probability.  The  difference 
between  our  budget  and  other  budgets  consists  in  this,  that  while 
we  present  a  statement  of  our  anticipated  city  expenditures,  we 
do  not  accompany  it  with  any  general  statement  of  the  sources 
of  revenue.  This  is  due  in  part  to  the  fact  that  most  of  our  revenue 
is  raised  from  one  source,  the  tax  upon  real  estate,  which  consists 
of  land  and  buildings  and  the  special  franchises  of  corporations. 
A  small  part  of  the  collections  comes  from  the  personal  property 
tax.  We  are  so  used  to  taxing  real  estate  that  there  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  any  necessity  in  the  mind  of  the  public  or  of 
our  administrators  for  accompanying  the  budget  with  a  statement 
showing  the  source  of  our  expected  revenues.  We  are  now  facing 
a  situation  which  will  require  such  a  statement.  The  budget  has 
assumed  such  large  figures,  and  the  tax  upon  real  estate  has  become 
so  onerous  that  it  may  be  necessary  to  devise  other  means  of 
producing  revenue,  and  the  people  should  be  apprised  of  such 
proposed  plans. 

I  state  this  as  a  possibility  because,  on  the  other  hand,  it  may 
develop,  as  Mr.  Vanderlip  has  suggested,  that  in  order  to  conform 
to  good  economic  practise  and  not  overburden  the  city  we  must 
reduce  our  expenditures  in  certain  directions.  Personally,  I 

(155) 


156  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

believe  not  only  that  it  is  necessary  to  reduce  expenditures,  but 
that  decided  measures  should  be  instituted  to  bring  about  such 
reduction.  I  say  this  without  unduly  criticizing  or  impugning  the 
propriety  of  such  activities  as  the  city  has  been  carrying  on  up  to 
the  present  time. 

Our  budget  for  this  year  is  approximately  one  hundred  ninety- 
nine  millions  of  dollars.  That  is  the  largest  budget  that  the  city 
of  New  York  has  ever  had.  It  is  probably  three  times  the  size 
of  the  budgets  of  the  three  largest  cities  in  the  Union,  and  I  think 
that  it  is  a  larger  budget  than  any  other  city  in  the  world  has  ever 
had.  The  questions  to  consider  are  these :  Is  the  budget  justified  ? 
Is  this  vast  expenditure  necessary?  Are  there  reasons  why  we 
should  continue  it  or  are  there  reasons  why  we  should  try  to  avoid 
such  considerable  expenditure  in  the  future  ?  We  have  been  in  a 
state  of  progressive  expenditure  in  this  city,  just  as  in  every  large 
city  in  the  country.  The  same  fact  holds  true  of  the  state  and 
national  governments.  In  the  period  from  1905  to  1909,  the  city 
expenses  increased  40.15%;  city  and  county  expenses  together, 
39.65%.  In  the  period  from  1909  to  1913,  the  city's  expenses 
increased  23%;  the  expenses  of  city  and  county,  22.87%.  The 
increase  was  less  rapid  during  the  last  four  years  than  during  the 
four  years  preceding,  but  nevertheless  we  as  a  city  are  in  a  state 
of  progressive  expenditure  in  respect  to  most  of  our  outlays. 

There  are  reasons  for  this.  One  reason  is  that  there  are  more 
people  to  take  care  of  from  year  to  year.  For  instance,  during  the 
last  fifteen  years  the  register  of  our  elementary  and  high  schools 
increased  86% ;  the  expense  of  conducting  the  schools  during  the 
same  period,  however,  increased  330%.  The  expenditure  grew 
more  than  three  times  as  fast  as  the  attendance,  rapid  as  was  the 
increase  in  the  latter. 

We  are  often  asked,  why  do  you  spend  so  much  money?  For 
one  thing,  we  have  many  social  activities  to  support.  Many  of 
them  should  not  be  decreased,  and  the  expenditures  in  connection 
with  them  consequently  cannot  be  much  decreased.  I  refer 
especially  to  the  activities  of  the  health  department,  particularly 
during  the  last  year  under  the  excellent  administration  of  Dr. 
Goldwater.  Its  efficiency  has  increased  much  more  rapidly  than 
its  expenditure,  so  that  we  are  getting  a  great  deal  for  the  money 
that  we  spend.  But  the  whole  disposition  of  our  city  services 


FINANCIAL  ADMINISTRATION  157 

has  been  this :  persons  well-intentioned,  thoughtful  in  most  cases, 
high-minded,  idealistic,  have  felt  that  any  activity  which  would 
promote  the  health,  comfort,  or  entertainment  of  the  people  could 
be  construed  as  a  part  of  our  educational  system,  that  all  such 
activities  should  be  carried  on  because  they  lead  to  general  better- 
ment. A  great  deal  of  our  increase  in  expenditure  may  be  charged 
to  this  desire  for  general  betterment.  The  great  question  which 
the  administration  and  citizens  of  the  city  face  at  the  present  time 
is  this :  Has  this  policy  of  general  betterment  been  carried  too  far  ? 
Is  there  a  good  reason  why  this  policy  should  be  discontinued  to 
some  extent?  Or  is  it  desirable  for  the  city  not  only  to  continue 
this  work,  but  to  develop  and  expand  it  ?  If  you  want  to  do  that, 
the  budget  will  have  to  continue  to  increase.  I  am  making  that 
as  a  general  statement,  but  I  could  support  it  with  figure  after 
figure.  That  being  the  case,  you  ought  to  take  up  that  issue 
thoughtfully  and  arrive  at  some  clear-cut  decision. 

Some  people  imagine  that  the  board  of  estimate  and  apportion- 
ment have  the  only  responsibility  in  this  matter.  That  is  a  mistake. 
The  city  government  will  do  what  the  people  want  it  to  do;  just 
as  soon  as  there  is  a  positive  indication  that  the  people  of  the  city 
think  the  government  to  be  going  too  far  in  expenditure,  in  better- 
ment, in  improvements,  that  indication  will  not  be  lost  upon  your 
government,  no  matter  who  is  in  office.  It  is  for  the  people  of  the 
city  to  say  whether  or  not  they  desire  an  extension  of  the  activities 
of  the  city.  From  1898  down  to  and  including  1914,  that  is,  since 
consolidation  and  down  to  the  end  of  last  year,  we  had  issued  in 
bonds,  and  notes  which  must  be  redeemed  from  the  sale  of  bonds, 
$1,182,000,000.  What  has  been  done  with  this  vast  sum?  20.78% 
has  been  spent  for  water  supply,  and  we  are  not  yet  through 
building  our  new  system.  13.3%  represents  expenditures  for 
rapid  transit,  and  we  still  have  about  seventy-five  million  dollars 
to  spend  to  finish  the  new  subway  system.  10.98%  has  been  spent 
on  schools  and  sites  for  schools,  and  13.43%  upon  public  works, 
streets  and  roads.  I  have  given  you  the  largest  items.  The  others 
are  all  small.  Of  that  great  total  of  $1, 182,000,000  worth  of  bonds 
issued  since  1898,  33%  has  been  spent  for  two  purposes  alone, 
water  supply  and  rapid  transit. 

Do  we  need  those  things?     There  is  no  doubt  of  it.      Mayor 


158  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

McClellan  imposed  upon  the  city  of  New  York  a  great  debt  of 
gratitude  for  his  foresightedness  and  force  in  bringing  about  the 
construction  of  our  new  water  system,  and  the  new  subway  system 
was  certainly  devised  and  is  now  being  executed  in  accordance  with 
public  demand.  If  we  want  these  things  we  must  expect  to  pay 
for  them;  and  if  we  don't  want  them,  then  we  shouldn't  start  any 
public  agitation  for  them. 

But  we  also  want  many  other  things,  some  necessary,  others 
in  my  judgment  unnecessary  and  perhaps  even  undesirable.  We 
want  new  schools,  new  hospitals,  new  station  houses,  new  fire 
houses,  new  buildings  for  the  department  of  correction,  new  recrea- 
tion centers,  new  social  services  of  all  kinds. 

By  no  means  all  of  our  city  expenditures  go  for  new  improve- 
ments. During  1910,  1911,  1912  and  1913  we  issued  $20,000,000 
worth  of  fifty-year  bonds  to  meet  deficiencies  caused  by  uncollecti- 
ble taxes.  Mr.  Metz  during  his  term  spent  $3,000,000  in  the 
same  way,  so  that  we  have  issued  $23,000,000  in  bonds  to  provide 
for  uncollectible  taxes  alone.  In  addition  to  that,  since  consolida- 
tion we  have  paid  off  through  amounts  provided  in  our  annual 
budget,  deficiencies  in  the  sum  of  $50,866,000.  There  are  seventy- 
three  millions  that  have  had  to  be  provided,  then,  to  pay  up  old 
debts  which  arose  because  all  the  moneys  we  expected  to  collect 
from  our  tax  levy  did  not  prove  to  be  collectible.  Now  that  we 
thoroughly  understand  the  character  of  these  deficiencies,  it  would 
be  a  great  deal  better  to  provide  additional,  re  venue  to  meet  the 
entire  expenses  of  our  budget  each  year  as  we  go  along,  rather 
than  have  these  deficiencies  accumulating  and  awaiting  liquida- 
tion in  the  future.  But  that  is  a  subject  by  itself  and  would 
require  considerable  discussion  in  order  to  explain  all  its  ramifica- 
tions. Still  another  large  item  in  our  budget  is  the  debt  service. 
I  wish  it  had  some  more  disagreeable  name  because  then  possibly 
the  people  would  get  better  acquainted  with  it  and  try  to  correct 
its  operations.  The  debt  service  means  the  money  you  must 
provide  to  pay  interest  upon  bonds  and  also  to  provide  a  sinking 
fund  to  meet  those  bonds  at  maturity.  Some  persons  have  a 
strange  idea  about  bonds.  They  seem  not  to  understand  that 
provision  must  be  made  for  the  redemption  of  bonds  and  that 
interest  commences  right  away.  They  seem  to  imagine  that  when 


FINANCIAL  ADMINISTRATION  159 

you  issue  a  bond  you  have  discharged  all  obligation  and  that  some- 
how the  money  to  pay  interest  and  to  pay  off  the  bond  at  maturity 
will  find  itself.  I  wish  they  could  realize  that  from  the  moment 
we  incur  the  obligation  we  face  the  problem  of  interest  and  redemp- 
tion. 

In  view  of  the  difficult  financial  position  of  the  city  I  raise  this 
question:  should  New  York  maintain  and  expand  its  present 
activities?  If  it  does,  it  must  increase  the  budget  from  year  to 
year.  Or  is  it  proper  to  countenance  reduction  in  those  activities  ? 
My  own  position,  frankly,  is  this :  We  have  gone  too  far  in  develop- 
ing our  activities  and  I  believe  that  we  should  now  curtail  some  of 
them,  not  only  because  it  will  reduce  the  budget,  but  also  because 
their  reduction  will  not  interfere  in  the  least  with  the  development 
of  manly  and  womanly  citizens.  The  particular  function  of 
government  is  to  develop  good  citizenship  and  I  think  that  can 
best  be  done  by  adhering  to  the  fundamental  requirements  of 
government  and  not  by  furnishing  the  people  with  everything  they 
see  and  everything  they  want.  I  think  that  we  make  better  men 
and  women  by  obliging  them  to  work  for  what  they  get.  I  realize 
that  this  is  considered  as  a  somewhat  reactionary  idea,  but  I  am 
not  afraid  on  that  account  to  voice  it  frankly. 


DISCUSSION   OF   FINANCIAL  ADMINISTRATION, 
BUDGET  AND  TAX  RATE 

THOMAS  W.  LAMONT,  Vice-President  of  the  Academy  of  Political  Science: 

In  regard  to  the  financial  administration  of  the  city,  the  first  ques- 
tion in  the  minds  of  bankers  always  is,  how  can  the  credit  of  the 
city  be  enhanced?  As  bankers  we  have  a  pride  in  the  high  credit 
of  the  imperial  city  of  New  York.  Its  credit  is  always  high,  but  how 
can  it  be  enhanced?  And  what  is  the  situation  to-day?  The  comp- 
troller has  already  given  you  some  stupendous  figures.  Even  at  the  risk 
of  repeating  some  of  them,  I  want  to  point  out  some  of  the  problems  that 
confront  us  in  financing  the  city. 

The  comptroller  has  stated  that  this  year's  budget  is  $199,000,000. 
In  1898  the  budget  was  only  $77,000,000.  In  that  same  year  the  city's 
debt  was  $341,000,000;  to-day  it  is  over  $1,000,000,000,  or  even  if  you 
deduct  the  sinking  fund,  it  is  between  $700,000,000  and  $800,000,000. 
The  interest  alone  on  New  York  city's  debt  is  $52,000,000,  a  sum  largely 
in  excess  of  the  interest  on  the  national  debt  of  the  United  States. 

How  can  the  bankers  enable  the  city  to  sell  its  obligations  so  as  to 
secure  a  lower  rate  of  interest?  Of  course,  one  of  the  first  things  is  for 
the  city  to  be  more  economical,  but  that  is  the  province  not  of  bankers, 
but  of  administrators  for  the  city.  The  city  also  must  spend  more 
wisely  what  it  absolutely  has  to  spend,  but  that  again  is  not  the  problem 
of  bankers.  There  is  one  point  already  alluded  to  by  your  chairman, 
which  does  come  within  our  purview,  however,  and  that  is  the  laying 
down  of  the  principle  adopted  by  the  present  city  administration  that 
the  city  must  pay  as  it  goes  for  its  non-productive  expenditures. 
Though  past  administrators  of  the  city  have  had  no  continuity  in  their 
financial  program  and  policies,  they  have  had  continuity  in  piling  up  an 
enormous  debt  for  non-productive  purposes.  The  principle  is  thor- 
oughly vicious,  but  it  has  been  followed  by  all  previous  administrations. 

Mayor  Mitchel  some  time  ago  stated  that  $485,000,000  of  the  city's 
present  debt  was  incurred  for  so-called  self-sustaining  improvements 
and  $834,000,000  for  non-productive  improvements.  Consider  what 
that  means.  It  is  precisely  as  if  a  railroad  paid  for  the  renewal  of  its 
ties  and  rails  each  year  by  issuing  its  bonds  for  such  improvements, 
or  as  if  an  industrial  company  renewed  its  machinery  with  the  proceeds 
of  bonds  issued  on  its  property.  There  is  no  doubt  what  would  become 
of  those  corporations.  Yet  that  was  the  principle  pursued  by  the  city. 

(160) 


FINANCIAL  ADMINISTRATION  161 

Despite  its  enormous  resources,  it  pursued  a  spendthrift  policy,  and  it 
remained  for  the  present  administration  to  adopt  the  new  policy  just  at 
that  thrilling  time  last  September  when  for  a  moment  the  city's  credit 
seemed  to  be  almost  imperiled. 

It  is  worth  while  to  review  that  situation  somewhat  more  in  detail. 
In  September,  after  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  this  city  owed  abroad  in 
England  and  in  France  $80,000,000.  Those  debts  had  very  properly 
been  contracted  there,  because  the  city  had  been  able  to  borrow  at  de- 
cidedly lower  rates  of  interest  in  England  and  France  than  in  America... 
But  there  were  $80,000,000  falling  due  before  the  first  of  the  year,  and  the 
good  name  of  the  city  of  New  York  was  involved  in  meeting  those  obli- 
gations promptly.  She  did  not  have  the  gold  to  ship,  and  if  she  had, 
been  able  to  buy  the  exchange  at  the  rates  then  prevailing  it  would  have 
cost  her  an  enormous  sum,  something  like  $15,000,000  or  $20,000,000 
more, — but  even  so  she  could  not  have  got  the  exchange.  At  that  junc- 
ture the  city  authorities  appealed  not  only  to  the  business  sense  and 
co-operation,  but  to  the  patriotism  of  the  bankers  of  the  city  of  New 
York.  It  is  to  the  credit  of  the  banking  institutions  of  this  city  when 
I  say  that  only  one  out  of  the  hundred  and  fifty  or  more  institutions 
of  this  city  that  were  invited  to  co-operate  in  this  matter  failed  to  do  so. 

That  co-operation  took  the  form  of  a  syndicate  organized  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  city  by  J.  P.  Morgan  &  Company  and  Kuhn,  Loeb  &  Com- 
pany, with  prominent  associates  like  the  City  Bank  and  others.  The 
syndicate  arranged  that  these  banking  institutions  grouped  together 
should  agree  to  buy  when  presented  $100,000,000  of  the  city's  obligations 
and  of  that  $100,000,000  to  pay  in  gold  the  sum  of  $80,000,000.  That 
furnished  the  gold  necessary  for  export  to  meet  these  obligations  due 
on  the  other  side.  Another  condition  of  the  agreement  was  that  the  syndi- 
cate should  turn  back  to  the  city  any  profits  realized  over  and  above 
2%  in  the  exchange  operation.  There  would  be  no  other  profits  of  any 
kind,  but  if  the  syndicate  succeeded  in  handling  the  exchange  situation 
between  America  and  London  and  Paris  in  such  a  way  as  to  realize  a 
profit  of  2%  or  more,  any  excess  was  to  go  back  to  the  city,  and  the  syndi- 
cate managers  were  to  receive  nothing  for  their  services. 

What  was  the  result  of  this  operation  in  which  the  city's  credit  was 
so  vitally  involved?  The  result  of  it  was  on  the  whole  to  place  the  city's 
credit  higher  than  ever  before.  The  operation  was  most  successful 
in  every  detail.  The  city  issued  its  obligations  to  the  extent  of  $100,- 
000,000  in  the  form  of  one-,  two-  and  three-year  notes,  which  were  offered, 
by  the  bankers  at  the  price  that  they  paid  for  them.  For  those  notes 
there  was  an  unprecedented  demand  from  all  over  the  city  and  the  coun-. 


162  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

try.  There  were  almost  six  thousand  individual  applications  for  these 
securities.  The  city's  obligations  were  discharged  and  her  credit  abroad 
was  placed  on  a  level  where  it  had  never  been  before,  because  she  had 
done  what  no  other  country  at  that  time  and  no  other  city  outside  of 
this  country  was  attempting  to  do,  and  that  was  to  pay  on  the  dot  in 
gold.  The  sum  of  almost  half  a  million  dollars  was  turned  back  to  the 
city,  being  the  excess  over  2%  realized  by  the  syndicate. 

It  was  at  this  time,  as  I  say,  that  this  new  and  important  principle 
was  adopted  of  paying  as  we  go,  and  that  principle  took  the  following 
form:  It  was  to  go  into  effect  gradually  so  as  not  to  derange  the  taxes 
too  much,  and  even  so  there  is  question  to-day  whether  it  may  not  cause 
undue  derangement.  Of  the  amount  to  be  raised  for  non-productive 
expenditures  in  the  first  year,  1915,  25%  is  to  be  added  to  the  tax  levy 
and  75%  is  to  be  defrayed  by  selling  fifteen-year  bonds.  In  the  second 
year,  50%  is  to  be  raised  from  the  tax  levy  and  50%  from  fifteen-year 
bonds;  in  the  third  year,  75%  from  the  tax  levy  and  25%  from  bonds; 
and  in  the  fourth  year,  1918,  the  whole  amount  of  non-productive  expendi- 
tures is  to  be  raised  from  the  tax  levy  itself.  That  principle  was  of  such 
importance  that  it  seems  to  me  worth  while  to  read  to  you  the  resolu- 
tion of  the  board  of  estimate  and  apportionment;  for  you  must  remem- 
ber that  this  city  administration  had  for  some  time  been  considering 
this  whole  question,  so  that  when  the  crisis  arose  on  account  of  the  war 
the  question  was  by  no  means  new  to  them.  The  resolution,  one  of 
the  most  important  ever  passed  by  the  board  of  estimate,  reads  as  follows: 

WHEREAS,  The  city  of  New  York  for  the  purpose  of  meeting  its  out- 
standing temporary  loans  to  the  amount  of  $100,000,000,  of  which  there^ 
are  foreign  obligations  to  the  amount  of  £13,310,000  and  61,500,000 
francs,  incurred  through  the  issue  of  corporate  stock  notes  and  revenue 
notes  heretofore  issued  under  and  pursuant  to  provisions  of  section 
189  and  187  of  the  Greater  New  York  charter,  and  payable  between 
this  date  and  January  1st  next; 

AND  WHEREAS,  The  extraordinary  situation  prevailing  in  the  financial 
market,  due  to  the  European  War,  makes  it  imperative  to  provide  for 
the  payment  in  gold  or  purchase  of  exchange  or  other  arrangement  for 
settlement  at  this  time  for  the  full  amount  of  the  foreign  loan; 

AND  WHEREAS,  The  city  expects  from  time  to  time  to  become  a  further 
borrower  in  the  market  for  the  purpose  of  financing  itself  through  ensu- 
ing years  as  heretofore  by  the  issue  of  revenue  bonds  and  revenue  notes 
in  anticipation  of  taxes  and  by  the  issue  of  corporate  stock  notes  and 
corporate  stock  for  permanent  improvements; 


FINANCIAL  ADMINISTRATION  163 

AND  WHEREAS,  At  the  present  moment  a  world  condition  prevails 
in  financial  markets  making  it  exceptionally  and  extraordinarily  diffi- 
cult to  secure  loans  in  large  sums  such  as  regularly  required  by  the  city 
to  provide  funds  for  the  discharge  of  its  business  in  anticipation  of  col- 
lection of  taxes  and  issue  of  corporate  stock,  and  for  this  reason  it  be- 
comes desirable  that  the  city  of  New  York  should  maintain  its  credit 
unimpaired  in  this  period  of  financial  stress  and  to  that  end  to  conform 
its  practises  to  the  most  conservative  methods  of  financial  management; 

AND  WHEREAS,  The  members  of  this  board  have  contemplated  the 
necessity  of  adopting  a  new  policy  with  regard  to  the  financing  of  per- 
manent public  improvements  looking  to  the  payment  of  the  expense 
thereof  in  increasing  proportions  out  of  the  budget  of  the  city  rather 
than  through  the  issue  of  long  term  bonds,  and  have  already  adopted 
such  practise  in  part,  which  intent  was  further  evidenced  by  the  state- 
ment contained  in  the  communication  addressed  by  the  mayor  to  this 
board  in  transmittal  of  the  executive  budget  on  August  the  14th  last; 

AND  WHEREAS,  The  present  is  an  appropriate  time  for  the  further 
extension  of  this  policy;  now  therefore  be  it 

Resolved)  That  the  board  of  estimate  and  apportionment  hereby 
declares  that  it  will  pursue  the  following  plan  in  financing  public  im- 
provements : 

(1)  The  cost  of  all  improvements  of  the  revenue-producing  class, 
such  as  rapid  transit,  docks,  railway  and  water  terminals  and  water 
supply,  shall  be  defrayed  by  the  issue  of  fifty-year  corporate  stock  as 
heretofore. 

(2)  The  cost  of  all  permanent  improvements,  other  than  those  of  the 
revenue-producing  class,  hereafter  authorized  by  this   board,   shall  be 
financed  as  follows: 

(a)  Those  authorized  subsequent  to  the  passage  of  this  resolution 
and  during  the  year  1915  shall  be  paid  for,  three-quarters  by  the  issue  of 
fifteen-year  corporate  stock.  The  corporate  stock  so  issued  shall  mature 
either  in  not  more  than  fifteen  years,  amortized  as  provided  by  law, 
or  in  equal  annual  instalments,  during  a  period  of  not  more  than  fif- 
teen years.  The  remaining  one-quarter  of  the  cost  of  such  improvements 
shall  be  paid  through  the  medium  of  a  one-year  bond  payable  from  the 
next  annual  tax  budget. 

(6)  Those  authorized  in  the  year  1916  shall  be  paid  for,  one-half 
by  the  issue  of  corporate  stock  maturing  as  aforesaid.  The  remaining 
one-half  of  the  cost  of  such  improvements  shall  be  paid  through  the 
medium  of  a  one-year  bond  payable  from  the  next  annual  tax  budget. 

(c)     Those  authorized  in  the  year  1917  shall  be  paid  for,  one-quarter 


164  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

by  the  issue  of  corporate  stock  as  aforesaid.  The  remaining  three-quarters 
of  .the  cost  of  such  improvements  shall  be  paid  through  the  medium  of 
a  one-year  bond  payable  from  the  next  annual  tax  budget. 

(d)  The  foregoing  statements  of  policy  contemplate  the  financing 
of  improvements  authorized  during  the  year  1918  and  subsequent 
years  through  the  inclusion  of  the  entire  cost  thereof  in  the  annual  budget 
of  the  city,  excepting  the  revenue-producing  improvements  hereinbefore 
mentioned. 

(3)  In  so  far  as  corporate  stock  notes  issued  by  the  city  of  New  York 
as  a  part  of  the  proposed  loan  of  $100,000,000  shall  be  retired  by  issues 
of  corporate  stock,  the  corporate  stock  so  issued  shall  mature  as  pro- 
vided in  clauses  (a),  (b)  and  (c)  of  paragraph  2  of  these  resolutions. 

(4)  The  cost  of  public  works   already  authorized,   whether  under 
contract  or  not,  but  in  respect  of  which  new  bonds  are  to  be  issued,  is 
to  be  financed  in  the  same  manner  as  above  provided,  with  the  exception 
of  the  cost  of  revenue-producing  improvements  hereinbefore  mentioned. 

Nothing  herein  contained  shall  be  deemed  to  affect  either  corporate 
stock  or  assessment  bonds  issued  to  replenish  the  street  improvement 
fund  or  the  fund  for  street  and  park  openings. 

That  policy  means  that  all  the  world  of  investors  will  understand 
the  determination  of  this  city  to  pay  as  it  goes.  It  is  not  going  to  leave 
future  generations  to  pay  the  cost  of  things  enjoyed  to-day  that  pro- 
duce no  revenue.  In  the  long  run  the  adoption  of  that  policy  will  greatly 
enhance  the  value  of  the  city's  obligations. 

As  a  last  word,  let  me  say  that  the  problem  is  not  yet  finished.  It 
is  a  problem  that  requires  the  co-operation  of  citizens  even  more  than 
bankers,  because  the  adoption  of  this  remarkable  policy  by  the  present 
administration  inevitably  means  an  increase  in  the  tax  rate  on  the  citi- 
zens of  the  city.  It  was  bound  to  be  an  unpopular  move  politically. 
It  was  a  daring,  courageous  move,  and  a  wise  one  as  well,  but  it  was 
a  move  that  demands  the  support  of  the  citizens;  for  the  increase  in  the 
tax  rate,  though  a  temporary  hardship,  is  a  severe  one.  Nevertheless 
this  policy  in  the  long  run  will  raise  the  credit  of  the  city  of  New  York 
above  its  already  high  place,  and  should  effect  material  savings  in  the 
future  financing  of  the  city. 

EDWIN  R.  A.  SELIGMAN,  McVickar  Professor  of  Political  Economy, 
Columbia  University: 

The  subject  assigned  to  me  is  a  perennially  old,  and  yet  in  this 
particular  juncture,  a  particularly  new  one,  the  selection  of  new 
sources  of  revenue. 


FINANCIAL  ADMINISTRATION  165 

Why  do  we  need  new  sources  of  revenue?  If  we  are  to  believe  our 
watchdog  of  the  treasury,  whom  we  are  very  fortunate  to  have  with 
us  at  this  time,  we  have  no  need  of  new  revenue,  but  we  can  cut  our 
coat  according  to  the  cloth.  If,  however,  we  are  to  believe  the  last 
speaker,  there  will,  notwithstanding  all  possible  economies,  still  be  the 
prospect  of  facing  the  necessity  of  new  revenues.  What  I  want  to  em- 
phasize is  this  fact,  that  we  are  going  through  a  crisis  in  the  history 
of  this  city,  which  ought  to  be  met  by  exceptional  measures,  and  the 
choice  is  one  between  cutting  to  the  bone,  and  the  less  heroic  but  per- 
haps equally  unpopular  method  of  submitting  for  the  time  being  to 
fresh  burdens. 

Why  is  it  a  crisis?  Ordinarily  we  have  not  had  this  trouble  because, 
although  the  expenditures  of  this  city,  as  of  all  cities,  have  grown,  it 
has  been  possible  to  meet  them  by  the  increase  in  the  revenues,  by  the 
ordinary  expansion  in  the  basis  from  which  we  derive  our  income.  Three 
or  four  things,  however,  have  happened  in  the  last  year  or  two  which 
have  brought  this  crisis  upon  us.  What  are  these  things?  In  the  first 
place,  we  are  building  a  whole  new  system  of  rapid  transit.  That  ex- 
penditure will  be  over  in  a  few  years  and  the  earnings  will  begin  to  come 
in.  In  the  meantime,  we  have  to  spend  money,  although  we  cover  the 
outlay  not  only  by  issuing  bonds  but  by  borrowing  the  interest.  Within 
a  year  or  two,  however,  we  shall  have  to  put  on  the  tax  levy  the  interest 
on  these  new  bonds,  until  the  time  when  the  rapid  transit  system  earns 
this  interest.  That  will  take  a  few  years.  In  the  second  place,  as  the 
preceding  speaker  has  pointed '  out,  we  have  now  adopted  the  policy 
of  "pay  as  you  go"  for  the  non-productive  capital  outlay,  or  the  so- 
called  non-self-supporting  improvements;  and  as  a  consequence  we  shall 
have  to  put  upon  our  tax  levy  every  year  an  increasing  amount  to  pay 
for  these  permanent  expenditures.  In  the  third  place,  ordinarily,  as  I 
say,  we  might  depend  upon  the  increase  in  the  assessments  of  real  estate, 
which  in  normal  times  would  be  several  hundred  million  dollars  a  year, 
and  which  would  give  us  an  ample  margin  for  the  increase  in  ordinary 
expenditures.  For  the  last  year  or  two,  however,  as  you  know,  we 
have  been  in  the  depths  of  a  great  depression,  and  this  depression  will 
probably  continue  for  a  short  time  at  least.  We  are  therefore  caught, 
as  you  see,  both  coming  and  going.  We  have  more  to  spend  and  we  have 
a  smaller  basis  upon  which  to  build,  a  smaller  source  from  which  to  draw 
the  revenue.  And  finally,  to  cap  the  climax,  we  are  now  confronted 
after  several  years  of  quiescence  with  the  outlook  of  5  direct  tax  for 
state  purposes  which  this  year  we  are  told  will  amount  to  at  least  eighteen 
or  twenty  millions  of  dollars,  and  of  which  the  city  will  have  to  pay  its 


166  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

large  share  of  70%.  Until  the  state,  therefore,  reforms  its  own  system 
of  finance,  a  point  carefully  to  be  considered  and  not  easily  to  be  accom- 
plished, during  this  year  and  during  the  next  few  years,  it  is  probable 
that  we  shall  have  to  look  forward  to  these  increased  expenses  on  the 
one  hand,  lack  of  increased  revenue  on  the  other. 

That,  I  say,  is  the  crisis  that  confronts  us,  and  the  problem  now  arises, 
how  shall  we  meet  it?  The  comptroller  has  told  you  how  he  would  meet 
it.  He  has  done  his  duty.  As  the  watchdog  of  the  treasury,  it  is  his 
duty  to  keep  before  us  now  and  at  all  times  the  sovereign  need  of  econ- 
omy. He  has  done  as  much  as  anyone  in  the  present  admirable  admin- 
istration— I  was  going  to  say  almost  more  than  any  one  else — to  point 
out  how  in  his  own  department,  and  in  all  the  other  departments  over 
which  he  has  indirect  control,  this  admirable  principle  of  economy  can 
be  achieved.  He  knows  whereof  he  speaks ;  he  practises  what  he  preaches. 
And  yet,  I  have  a  little  doubt  as  to  whether,  when  the  matter  is  put 
before  the  citizenry  of  New  York,  they  will  elect,  when  they  know  what 
it  really  means,  to  follow  the  comptroller's  plan.  For,  after  all,  the 
question  is  not  so  much  one  of  economy  as  of  choice  between  economy 
and  parsimony.  We  all  agree  that  we  must  have  economy,  and  the 
city  administration  has  shown  that  it  follows  this  plan.  For,  as  you  know, 
in  the  budget  for  the  coming  year,  we  are  actually  spending  for  ordinary 
city  purposes  less  than  the  year  before.  So  far  as  the  ordinary  expenses 
of  the  city  are  concerned,  which  ought  normally  to  grow  with  the  growth 
of  population,  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  comptroller  and  his  associates 
will  be  able  to  keep  the  budget  for  the  next  year,  notwithstanding  the 
increase  of  population,  down  considerably  below  the  present  figures. 
That  is  sound  economy,  and  it  ought  assuredly  to  be  practised.  But 
when  you  come  to  the  point  of  meeting  the  25%,  soon  to  be  the  50, 
75,  or  100%  of  the  non-productive  expenditures  for  capital  purposes — 
and  we  have  been  spending  on  the  average  from  twenty-five  to  twenty- 
eight  million  dollars  a  year  for  that  purpose  alone,  new  school  houses, 
new  court  houses  and  things  of  that  kind, — when  you  add  to  that  the 
increased  expenses  that  are  coming  along  for  rapid  transit ;  and  when  you 
add  still  further  our  proportion  of  the  immense  direct  state  tax;  when 
you  have  done  all  that,  you  will  realize  that  we  are  confronting  a  situa- 
tion where  we  shall  need  not  indeed  next  year,  but  the  following  year 
or  within  three  or  four  years  an  additional  revenue  of  between  $30,000,000 
and  $40,000,000,  to  put  it  conservatively.  We  shall  then  need  from 
thirty  to  forty 'millions  of  dollars  more  revenue  or  we  have  got  to  lop 
off  from  our  present  expenditures  thirty  to  forty  million  dollars  of  ex- 
penditures. 


FINANCIAL  ADMINISTRATION  167 

The  comptroller  has  told  you  that  so  far  as  the  health  department  is 
concerned,  he  would  not  be  in  favor  of  lopping  off  anything,  because  we 
are  getting  our  money's  worth  and  more  than  our  money's  worth.  I 
imagine  that  for  streets  and  the  taking  care  of  streets,  there  is  not  an 
immense  amount  to  be  saved,  although  I  have  no  doubt  that  a  few  mil- 
lions could  well  be  cut  out  by  careful  economy.  We  must  then  save 
on  schools.  We  are  therefore  confronted  by  a  situation  where  we  shall 
have  completely  to  change  our  whole  system  of  education  so  as  to  save 
not  a  million  or  two,  but  ten  or  fifteen  millions  out  of  the  thirty  or  forty 
millions  we  are  spending  for  that  purpose.  That  means  that  we  shall 
have  to  give  up  all  our  colleges,  our  high  schools,  our  vocational  schools 
and  a  great  part  of  the  recent  additions  that  have  been  made  to  our 
educational  plant.  For  even  though  you  abandon  pretty  much  all  of 
what  might  be  called  the  fads  and  frills  in  our  educational  scheme,  the 
comptroller  himself  has  told  us  that  they  amount  to  comparatively 
little.  We  must  remember  that  it  is  not  a  question  of  economizing 
half  a  million  here  or  a  million  there,  in  the  ordinary  branches  of  the 
administration.  We  are  all  in  favor  of  that,  of  course;  nay,  we  must 
insist  upon  it.  But  it  is  a  question  of  choosing  whether  you  are  going 
to  cut  to  the  bone  in  the  educational  and  all  the  other  social  services 
of  the  city  or  whether  you  are  going  to  raise  more  revenue. 

My  own  feeling  is  that  if  we  had  come  to  the  point  where  no  more 
revenue  could  be  raised  without  great  hardship  to  the  community,  then, 
serious  as  it  would  be,  we  should  nevertheless  be  compelled  to  cut  to 
the  bone.  Why  do  we  spend  so  much  money  in  modern  times?  The 
growth  of  modern  expenditure  is  due  to  the  growth  of  modern  democ- 
racy. It  is  because  we  realize  that  on  the  whole,  the  under  dog  ought 
to  have  as  much  of  a  chance  as  the  rest  of  us  to  derive  some  benefit  from 
the  blessings  of  civilization,  and  to  have  an  opportunity  at  all  events 
to  develop  himself,  that  the  community  is  beginning  to  give  him  a  chance, 
through  education,  sanitation,  recreation  and  the  like.  We  find  this 
growth  of  expenditures  all  over  the  world,  in  Asia,  in  Africa  and  in  Europe; 
in  Great  Britain,  in  France  and  Germany  as  in  the  United  States.  If 
then  we  remember  that  the  normal  growth  of  expenditures  is  simply  the 
reverse  of  the  shield  of  progressive  democracy,  to  say  as  we  should  have 
to  say  that  we  must  cut  to  the  bone,  in  order  to  save  these  ten,  twenty 
or  thirty  millions  of  dollars;  and  to  say  that  we  must  give  up  all  those 
things  which  have  put  New  York — I  won't  say  in  the  front  rank,  but 
among  the  progressive  cities  of  the  world, — to  confess  this  is  to  incur 
the  danger  of  taking  a  step  backward  which  will  react  upon  the  com- 
merce and  the  industry  of  this  city  and  which  will  ultimately  injure 
its  prosperity. 


168  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

Yet  even  this  I  would  face  if  it  has  to  be,  if  we  had  reached  our  limit. 
'But  what  is  the  fact? 

The  fact  is  that  we  are  raising  all  our  revenue  in  the  city  practically 
from  one  source,  real  estate,  and  the  rate  on  real  estate  at  the  present 
time  is  indeed  such  that  we  cannot  well  increase  it.  But  what  should 
be  done  is  not  to  compare  expenditures  with  population  or  even  ex- 
penditures with  real  estate;  we  should  compare  expenditures  with  social 
income.  The  reason  why  the  expenditures  of  the  city  have  increased 
so  enormously  is  because  of  the  growth  in  the  social  income  of  the  city, 
the  income  of  the  people  that  compose  the  city.  Do  you  know  that 
of  the  income  tax  raised  in  the  United  States  last  year,  between  45% 
and  47%  of  the  tax  paid  by  individuals  on  personal  income  was  paid 
in  this  city?  Think  of  it,  almost  one-half  of  the  entire  taxable  incomes 
in  the  United  States  right  here;  and  yet  they  tell  us  that  we  cannot 
afford  to  keep  up  the  social  service  of  the  city  and  the  education  in  which 
we  believe.  The  trouble  is  not  with  our  expenditures,  although  I  am 
the  greatest  possible  advocate  of  economy;  the  trouble  is  that  we  have 
an  absurd  and  inadequate  system  of  revenue.  The  people  who  pay  the 
taxes  in  this  city  are  not  the  poor  men  directly  nor  the  rich  men,  but 
the  great  middle  class.  What  we  need  is  a  system  of  taxation,  a  system 
of  raising  revenues  both  local  and  state  which  will  tap  the  social  income 
in  such  a  way  as  to  make  all  classes  of  the  community  pay  their  proper 
share. 

What  did  Lloyd  George  do  when  he  was  confronted  with  the  necessity 
of  raising  fifty  millions  more  for  social  insurance?  He  did  not  say,  "We 
have  taxed  real  estate  as  much  as  we  can,  and  therefore  we  have  got 
to  cut  to  the  bone  in  our  expenditures. "  No,  he  said,  "There  is  a  social 
income  in  this  community  and  I  shall  proceed  to  find  it. "  And  he  found 
it  in  ways  that  have  not  been  spoken  of  in  this  country  at  all.  What 
do  they  do  in  Germany?  What  do  they  do  in  France?  What  do  they 
do  in  every  country  in  the  world  except  in  the  state  and  city  of  New 
York  when  this  proposition  is  before  them?  The  mayor's  tax  committee, 
of  which  I  have  the  honor  to  be  a  member,  is  wrestling  with  one  side 
of  that  problem,  and  the  mayor  is  not  ready  yet  to  make  our  conclu- 
sions public.  I  would  say,  however,  that  it  is  not  simply  a  question  of 
a  mayor's  tax  committee,  but  of  a  governor's  tax  committee.  We  in 
the  city  of  New  York  are  as  much  interested  in  having  a  reformation 
of  the  state  revenues,  of  which  we  pay  70%,  as  in  having  a  reformation 
of  the  city  revenues.  Until  we  can  get  together  and  consider  dispas- 
sionately this  problem — is  there  sufficient  social  income  in  the  state 
and  the  imperial  city  of  New  York  to  make  possible  a  continuation  of 


FINANCIAL  ADMINISTRATION  169 

the  program  of  sane  and  sensible  social  service  upon  which  we  have 
entered? — until  we  can  get  an  answer  to  that  problem  we  can  make  little 
headway.  But  when,  as  I  hope,  we  shall  have  solved  this  problem,  we 
shall  then  have  no  difficulty  in  making  a  choice  between  the  two  alter- 
natives: shall  we  cut  to  the  bone  and  abandon  so  much  of  what  we 
have  already  attained?  or  shall  we  say,  "Yes,  let  us  have  economy,  let 
us  have  expenditures  economically  administered;  but  let  us  have  enough 
revenue  out  of  the  social  income  to  make  those  expenditures  possible." 


THE   REGISTER'S   OFFICE  OF  NEW  YORK  COUNTY 

JOHN  J.  HOPPER 

Register  of  New  York  County 

THE  register's  office  of  New  York  county  was  organized 
in  1812,  but  the  real  property  records  prior  to  that  time, 
which  were  kept  by  the  county  clerk,  were  transferred  to 
the  care  of  the  register,  so  that  the  records  are  continuous  from 
1654  to  the  present. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  register  to  receive  and  "record  at  length" 
all  instruments  affecting  real  property  and  to  index  them.  Alto- 
gether about  two  million  real  property  instruments  have  been 
recorded.  New  York  county,  which  is  the  same  in  extent  of 
territory  as  the  borough  of  Manhattan,  contains  about  100,000 
lots,  so  that  there  is  an  average  of  about  twenty  instruments  to 
each  lot.  To  find  the  particular  twenty  instruments  affecting  a 
given  lot  is  the  object  of  title  "searching,"  and  to  simplify  that 
search  is  the  purpose  of  indexing.  Prior  to  1891,  all  indexes 
were  alphabetical,  and  all  the  instruments  for  the  entire  county, 
then  numbering  about  1,200,000,  were  intermingled.  In  1891  the 
"block  system"  of  indexing  was  established,  whereby,  the  area  of 
search  was  reduced  to  a  city  block.  The  enormous  aggregation 
of  names  back  of  1891  made  searching  a  very  difficult,  expensive, 
and  precarious  operation,  resulting  in  the  employment  of  profes- 
sional searchers.  About  twenty-five  years  ago  the  individual 
searchers  were  displaced  by  corporations,  who  prepared  private 
locality  indexes  of  the  official  records.  There  are  now  three  title 
examining  corporations  who  maintain  private  indexes  of  the 
county  records. 

The  primary  duty  of  the  register  is  to  record  and  index  real 
property  instruments,  but  in  recent  years  the  activities  of  the 
office  have  greatly  increased  and  broadened.  The  various 
activities  divide  the  office  into  corresponding  departments  or 
bureaus.  These  are  as  follows : 

(1)  The  general  administration,  which  handles  the  current 
work  of  recording  and  indexing  which,  from  the  character  of  the 
work,  subdivides  into: 

(170) 


OFFICE   OF  REGISTER  171 

(a)  Cashier  and  receiving  division. 
(6)  Recording  and  examining  division. 

(c)  Block  and  alphabetical  index  division. 

(d)  Mortgage  satisfaction  division. 

(e)  Checking  the  indexes. 

All  of  these  have  to  do  with  real  property  instruments. 
(/)  The  chattel  mortgage  division. 

(2)  The  bureau  for  the  preservation  of  public  records,  which 
copies  and  restores  ancient  or  mutilated  records  and  maps. 

(3)  The  mortgage  tax  bureau,  which  collects  and  accounts  for 
the  mortgage  tax. 

(4)  The  reindexing  department,  which  is  preparing  the  locality 
index  plant  of  instruments  recorded  prior  to  1891  and  connecting 
them  with  the  modern  locality  index. 

(5)  The  land  title  registration  bureau,   which  registers  titles 
and  issues  certificates  of  title  under  the  Torrens  law. 

Introduction  of  Business  Methods 

The  total  budget  appropriation  for  1914  was  $304,468.40;  there 
was  actually  spent,  however,  only  $279,277.65,  making  a  cash 
saving  for  the  year  of  $25,190.75,  which  has  been  returned  to 
the  city  treasury  in  unexpended  balances.  Of  the  total  spent, 
$15,160.04  was  spent  for  recopying  and  restoring  old  and  mutilated 
records;  $95,942.48  was  spent  in  reindexing  records  back  of  1891 ; 
the  balance,  $168,175.13,  was  spent  in  current  general  administra- 
tion of  the  office. 

The  revenue  from  fees  collected  in  1914  and  paid  into  the  city 
treasury  was  $97,560.72.  This  leaves  a  deficit  of  $70,614.41 
in  current  operating  expenses,  disregarding  the  amounts  spent  in 
restoring  and  reindexing  old  records,  as  this  work  is  special  and 
temporary.  In  addition  to  this  deficit  the  cost  of  heat,  light,  care, 
and  rental  value  of  the  register's  part  of  the  Hall  of  Records  is 
computed  at  $76,945,  making  a  total  deficit  in  current  expenses 
of  $154,809.41.  The  causes  for  this  deficit  are  two: 

First,  the  rate  of  fees  (established  many  years  ago)  is  too  low. 

Second,  old-fashioned  and  cumbersome  methods  of  work  have 
made  the  cost  of  operating  too  high. 

A  bill  to  increase  the  rate  of  fees  and  establish  them  on  a  modern 


172  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK    CITY 

basis  was  introduced  in  the  legislature  in  1915,  but  failed  to 
receive  the  attention  of  that  body.  On  the  other  hand,  much  has 
been  accomplished  in  reorganizing  the  office  and  introducing 
improved  methods  of  work  to  reduce  operating  cost.  Among 
these  may  be  enumerated  : 

(1)  Use  of  typewriting  instead  of  handwriting. 

(2)  Substituting  abstract  system  in  place  of  blotter  system  in 
indexing. 

(3)  Establishment  of  orderly  routine  in  current  work. 

(4)  Bringing  and  keeping  work  up  to  date,  and  thus  making 
unnecessary   certain   records   formerly  made   necessary   by   the 
congestion  of  unfinished  current  work. 

(5)  Consolidation  of  divisions  and  concentration  of  duties. 

(6)  Increased  attentiveness,  better  application  to  work,  and 
stricter  punctuality  and  attendance. 

(7)  Standardization  of  salaries,  use  of  daily  individual  reports 
and  cost  work  accounts. 

The  benefits  of  improved  methods  have  been  reflected  to  the 
city  in  two  ways: 

(1)  By  reducing  the  office  force  and  saving  in    the    budget 
allowances. 

(2)  By  turning  the  energies  of  clerks  from  unproductive  channels 
into  new  work  and  so  accomplishing  more  with  the  same  force  of 
men. 

Thus  in  the  bureau  for  the  preservation  of  public  records,  work 
which  would  have  required  21  years  to  do  by  handwriting  will  be 
done. in  4  years  by  typewriting,  with  a  vastly  superior  product, 
and  with  about  the  same  annual  cost,  saving  on  this  piece  of  work 
alone  about  $170,000.  The  value  of  services  saved  in  the  budget 
or  gained  by  application  to  new  work  is  equivalent  to  nearly  one- 
third  the  amount  of  the  annual  payroll. 

No  systematic  method  of  checking  indexes  was  followed  by 
former  administrations,  with  the  result  that  many  thousands  of 
errors  have  crept  into  the  indexes.  About  twenty  clerks,  made 
available  by  better  methods  in  other  departments,  have  been 
assigned  to  the  work  of  checking  and  correcting  the  existing 
indexes.  The  alphabetical  indexes  which  were  from  three  to  nine 
months  behind  have  been  brought  to  date.  In  current  indexing  a 


OFFICE  OF  REGISTER  173 

complete  system  of  cross-checking  has  been  established,  making 
any  future  re-checking  of  indexes  unnecessary,  so  that  when  the 
work  of  re- verifying  old  indexes  has  been  finished,  there  will  be  an 
appreciable  reduction  in  the  cost  of  operating  and  in  the  annual 
budget  allowance. 

The  cash  income  of  the  office  has  been  increased  about  $15,000 
per  year  by  closer  attention  to  collecting  all  fees  required  by  law. 
One  item  alone,  the  collecting  of  five  cents  for  each  name  in  the 
street  index  for  chattel  mortgages,  neglected  by  previous  admin- 
istrations, has  resulted  in  an  increased  cash  income  of  about 
$12,000  per  year. 

The  mortgage  tax  bureau,  which  is  under  the  state  board  of  tax 
commissioners,  collected  $1,998,530.95  during  1914.  These 
collections  are  deposited  temporarily  in  banks ;  under  arrangements 
made  by  me  with  the  banks,  interest  on  the  daily  bank  balances 
was  obtained.  The  total  interest  received  for  the  year  1914 
amounted  to  $21,225.34.  The  total  cost  of  conducting  this 
bureau  for  the  year,  including  all  salaries  and  supplies,  was 
$11,800.65,  so  that  the  bureau's  expenses  were  paid  out  of  the 
interest  and  in  addition  $9,424.69  of  the  interest,  over  and  above 
the  whole  amount  of  taxes  collected,  will  be  turned  over  to  the  city 
authorities. 

New  Locality  Index  and  the  Torrens  System 

The  work  of  re-indexing  the  old  records  back  of  1891  was  begun 
in  1910  and  up  to  January  1,  1915,  $368,065.38  had  been  spent 
in  this  work.  To  complete  the  work  will  bring  the  total  expendi- 
ture up  to  about  $500,000.  In  this  work  the  instruments  are 
located  not  only  by  block  but  according  to  the  lots  affected,  so 
that  to  determine  the  chain  of  title  of  a  given  lot  requires  but  a 
few  moments;  in  fact,  the  title  history  of  a  lot  can  be  shown 
practically  on  inspection.  The  register's  office  contains  the  original 
conveyance  and  mortgage  records  which  make  up  the  body  of 
real  property  titles.  In  the  same  building  are  also  the  records 
of  the  county  clerk  and  the  surrogate,  which  in  part  affect  titles 
to  real  property.  The  municipal  building  across  the  street 
contains  the  tax  office  records  and  the  various  municipal  depart- 
ments, so  that  within  the  register's  office  or  close  at  hand  are  all 


174  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

the  records  affecting  real  property,  making  the  register's  office 
the  natural  place  for  the  examination  of  titles. 

In  1908  the  so-called  Torrens  law  was  enacted.  The  effect 
of  a  successful  Torrens  law  is  to  remove  title  examination  entirely 
from  the  field  of  private  endeavor  and  substitute  an  official  system 
conducted  solely  by  the  public  registrar  of  titles.  In  New  York 
the  Torrens  law  has  been  practically  a  dead  letter.  Only  thirteen 
titles  have  been  registered.  One  of  these  has  been  cancelled  and 
five  have  been  withdrawn,  leaving  seven  titles  only  as  the  product 
of  seven  years  operation.  This  failure  in  New  York  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  framers  of  the  law  in  1908  tried  to  make  the  law 
satisfactory  to  the  title  companies  and  practically  put  the  opera- 
tion of  the  law  within  the  control  of  these  corporations.  The 
present  equipment  of  the  register's  office  with  its  locality  index 
plant  makes  the  county  independent  of  the  private  plants  of  the 
title  companies,  and  with  a  proper  amendment  to  the  law  will 
make  the  Torrens  system  a  possible  achievement  in  the  near 
future,  and  put  the  register's  office  and  conveyancing  methods 
on  a  close  business  basis. 

The  amount  paid  to  title  companies  in  this  city  for  the  examina- 
tion of  titles  has  been  estimated  at  several  million  dollars  annually. 
Although  the  establishment  of  the  Torrens  method  has  received  the 
natural  and — up  to  the  present  time — effective  opposition  of  the 
corporations  whose  earnings  in  part  depend  upon  the  continuation 
of  the  old  way  of  doing  things,  yet  the  reasonable  demand  that 
real  property  be  freed  from  the  burden  of  delays  in  passing  title  and 
from  the  cost  of  continual  re-examination  of  titles,  will  eventually 
bring  this  simple  and  inexpensive  system  into  general  use,  and 
make  the  register's  office  what  it  should  be — the  clearing  house  of 
titles  for  New  York  county. 


HIGHWAYS,  STREET  CLEANING  AND, 
PUBLIC  WORKS 

DOUGLAS   MATHEWSON 
President  of  the  Borough  of  The  Bronx 

THE  subject  assigned  to  me  calls  for  a  discussion  of  certain 
of  the  physical  things  with  which  the  public  has  to  do :  the 
streets,  their  care  and  the  doing  of  work  of  different  kinds 
in  those  streets;  the  history  of  the  growth  and  development  of 
highways ;  their  uses ;  and  incidentally,  the  law  bearing  upon  the 
general  subject. 

One  seldom  appreciates  the  importance  of  the  commonplace. 
Approximate  perfection  in  ordinary  things  is  so  customary  as  to 
cause  but  little  comment.  Like  tact  in  an  individual,  efficient 
management  and  control  of  these  commonplaces  are  seldom  com- 
mented upon  because  of  their  presence,  but  their  absence  immedi- 
ately attracts  attention  and  comment.  The  individual  is  so  apt 
to  think  of  the  highway  as  the  little  portion  of  the  street  in  front 
of  his  own  home  or  place  of  business,  or  as  the  road  over  which  he 
travels,  consisting  of  other  little  poftions  before  somebody  else's 
home  or  place  of  business,  that  he  does  not  realize  how  great  a 
proportion  of  the  city  of  New  York  lies  in  its  highways  to-day  and 
how  much  greater  a  proportion  of  the  area  of  our  city  will  consist 
of  highways  when  they  are  all  constructed. 

In  the  city  of  New  York  there  are  a  little  over  200,000  acres  of 
land,  divided  by  boroughs  as  follows:  Manhattan,  14,000  acres; 
Brooklyn,  51,000  acres;  The  Bronx  26,000  acres;  Queens,  75,000 
acres;  and  Richmond,  36,000  acres.  (In  passing  it  may  be  of 
interest  to  note  that  about  3.8%  of  the  entire  area  of  the  city  is 
park  land,  the  proportions  varying  in  the  different  boroughs  from 
15%  in  The  Bronx  to  1.4%  in  Queens,  and  a  still  smaller  percentage 
in  Richmond.  The  cemeteries,  too,  occupy  a  larger  proportion 
of  the  city  than  most  people  imagine,  about  2.4%  of  the  total  area 
within  the  city  limits.  The  figure  is  about  3.3%  for  Queens,  and 
about  2%  for  each  of  the  other  boroughs  excepting  Manhattan, 
where  the  land  devoted  to  such  purposes  is  insignificant.) 

The  spaces  devoted  to  park  and  cemetery  purposes,  while  men- 

(175) 


176  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

tioned  incidentally,  are  yet  valuable  for  comparison  with  the 
'  street  area.  The  total  area  of  streets  in  use  in  the  five  boroughs  at 
the  present  time,  is  nearly  33,000  acres,  or  something  over  16% 
of  the  total  land  area  of  the  city.  In  the  different  boroughs  the 
percentage  of  the  area  devoted  to  street  purposes  is  as  follows: 
Manhattan,  27%;  Brooklyn,  18%;  The  Bronx,  14%;  Queens, 
17%;  Richmond,  7%.  I  am  assured  by  the  engineering  bureaus 
in  the  different  boroughs  that  the  figures  used  in  obtaining  the 
percentages  I  have  given  are  accurate.  It  will  be  seen,  then,  that 
the  area  of  the  highways  actually  in  use  at  the  present  time  is 
something  over  two  and  one-half  times  as  great  as  the  area  of 
parks  and  cemeteries  combined,  great  as  the  popular  mind  imagines 
that  to  be.  In  this  connection,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
streets  in  use,  elsewhere  than  in  Manhattan  and  Richmond, 
represent  but  approximately  one-half  the  streets  to  be  ultimately 
developed.  In  Manhattan,  the  percentage  of  streets  remaining 
to  be  built  is  of  course  smaller,  while  in  Richmond  it  is  much 
larger,  than  in  the  other  boroughs. 

In  Manhattan,  or  at  least  that  part  of  it  north  of  Fourteenth 
street,  the  street  system  was  laid  out  by  engineers  working,  as 
it  were,  upon  virgin  territory,  and  disregarding  old  highways, 
with  the  exception  of  Bloomingdale  Road,  now  so  largely  merged 
in  Broadway,  and  perhaps  one  or  two  minor  old  lanes.  The  high- 
way system  of  the  rest  of  the  city  may  be  said  to  have  grown,  rather 
than  to  have  been  originally  laid  out.  Each  of  the  four  boroughs 
other  than  Manhattan,  prior  to  constituting  one  governmental 
unit,  consisted  of  a  number  of  separate  units,  each  laying  out  its 
own  simple  street  systems,  fixed  in  the  main  with  regard  to  ancient 
lanes  and  highways.  The  situation  in  these  boroughs  was  further 
complicated  by  the  action  of  individual  owners  of  tracts  of  land 
in  laying  out  additional  highway  systems,  coinciding  with  nothing 
in  the  vicinity,  and  particularly  suitable  to  nothing,  except  the 
one  aim  of  the  owner  to  obtain  the  most  available  land  from  his 
holdings  for  sub-division  into  salable  lots.  Upon  this  heterogene- 
ous collection,  following  consolidation  either  into  the  present 
component  parts  of  the  city  of  New  York,  or  the  consolidation  of 
all  these  into  the  greater  city,  there  has  been  and  is  being  imposed 
the  final  layout  of  the  street  system. 


HIGHWAYS  AND  PUBLIC  WORKS  177 

The  almost  purely  rectangular  system  of  Manhattan,  varied 
only  in  parts  of  the  Washington  Heights  and  Inwood  sections, 
where  the  physical  configuration  rendered  the  rectangular  layout 
impracticable,  has  been  the  subject  of  much  criticism  from  stu- 
dents of  city  planning.  It  is  safe  to  state  that  the  more  or  less 
irregular  system  of  the  other  boroughs,  with  an  arterial  layout 
of  radial  roads  super-imposed  upon  the  older  layouts,  more  nearly 
meets  the  present  ideal  of  the  city  planner.  The  systems  of  the 
boroughs  other  than  Manhattan  permit  of  sites  which  because  of 
perspective  allow  to  a  far  higher  degree  than  does  Manhattan  the 
erection  of  architectural  masterpieces  conducing  to  that  beauty 
and  magnificence  that  is  an  important  asset  of  a  great  metropolis. 
To  some  extent,  this  result  of  radial  highways  through  a  system  of 
more  or  less  irregular  streets,  has  been  arrived  at  by  design,  and 
at  some  considerable  expense.  To  some  degree,  too,  it  has  been 
brought  about  because  of  a  desire  not  to  disturb  the  security  of 
real  titles  by  leaving  strips  of  old  and  abandoned  streets  in  front 
of  property  in  private  ownership,  and  not  to  divide  small  parcels 
in  private  ownership  in  such  a  way  as  to  deprive  them  of  value, 
at  an  expense  which  could  not  be  assessed  as  a  corresponding 
benefit. 

It  would  be  instructive  to  trace  the  history  of  highways  of 
various  kinds,  such  as  the  Dutch  highways,  created  during  the 
Dutch  occupation,  with  the  fee  of  the  land,  as  well  as  the  right  to 
the  user,  in  the  community;  the  English  highways,  where  only 
the  easement  of  the  user  was  in  the  community,  with  the  fee 
of  the  land  left  in  the  abutting  owners,  sometimes  to  be  carried 
along  with  the  fee  of  the  adjacent  land,  and  ofttimes  to  be  dropped 
in  conveyancing,  to  the  distress  of  those  who  might  subsequently 
endeavor  to  perfect  title  to  it;  and  the  highways  acquired  under 
the  general  highway  law  outside  the  old  city  of  New  York,  where 
only  the  easement  of  use  for  highway  purposes  was  acquired, 
leaving  the  fee  in  the  abutting  owners,  as  in  the  case  of  the  English 
highways.  This  kind  of  highway  was  a  particularly  expensive 
one  to  the  city  when  it  came  to  build  subways  in  the  borough  of 
Brooklyn,  when  the  city  was  obliged  to  compensate  the  owners  of 
the  fee  because  the  court  of  appeals  held  that  the  building  of  the 
subway  was  not  a  highway  or  street  use.  Then  there  are  the 


178  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK   CITY 

dedicated  streets  made  by  the  owner  of  a  tract  of  land  making  and 
•  filing  a  map  of  that  land,  showing  streets,  and  then  selling  lots 
abutting  thereon.      But  time  forbids  that  the  history  of  these 
various  kinds  of  streets  should  be  more  than  referred  to. 

The  standard  street  or  highway  of  the  city  of  New  York  to-day 
is  the  street  in  which  the  city,  either  through  proceedings  in 
invitum,  or  by  deed  of  cession  by  the  owners,  is  the  owner  in  fee 
of  the  land,  leaving  no  outstanding  rights  therein  upon  which 
claims  may  be  based  because  of  sub-surface  construction,  or  other- 
wise than  for  deprivation  of  light,  air  and  access,  the  right  to 
which  the  adjacent  owner  of  course  possesses. 

When  the  people  desire  to  have  such  a  street  laid  out  where 
none  exists,  and  to  have  it  improved,  the  Greater  New  York 
charter  provides  a  way  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  desire.  If 
the  street  which  is  wanted  is  not  shown  upon  the  final  maps  of 
the  borough,  the  first  step  is  to  have  it  placed  there.  This  is 
done  by  the  adoption  by  the  board  of  estimate  and  apportion- 
ment of  an  amendment  to  the  final  map,  usually,  although  not 
necessarily,  upon  the  recommendation  of  the  borough  authorities. 
When  it  is  upon  the  map,  the  next  step  is  for  the  city  to  acquire 
title  to  the  street.  In  the  absence  of  cession  of  such  title  to  the 
city  by  the  owners  of  the  fee,  upon  the  recommendation  of  the 
local  board  of  the  local  improvement  district  in  which  the  street 
is  located,  approved  by  the  borough  president,  the  board  of 
estimate  and  apportionment  may  authorize  proceedings  for  the 
formal  acquisition  of  such  title,  through  condemnation  proceed- 
ings in  the  supreme  court. 

At  the  present  moment,  such  condemnation  proceedings  may 
embrace  only  the  actual  land  required  for  the  public  improvement 
contemplated.  This  limitation  of  the  power  of  acquisition  has 
been  found  open  to  two  objections:  It  sometimes  leaves  narrow 
strips  not  susceptible  of  profitable  improvement,  between  the 
lines  of  the  street  and  adjacent  land,  and  by  reason  of  the 
resultant  damage  invariably  claimed  by  the  owners  of  such 
small  parcels  the  damage  awarded  in  most  cases  is  about  equal  to 
what  that  damage  would  have  been  had  the  entire  parcel  of 
which  the  resultant  small  strip  originally  formed  a  part,  been 
taken.  To  remedy  this  situation,  after  the  prescribed  passage 


HIGHWAYS  AND  PUBLIC   WORKS  179 

by  the  legislature  at  the  election  of  1913,  the  people  adopted  a 
constitutional  amendment  permitting  the  enactment  of  statutes 
which  would  provide  for  what  is  popularly  known  as  excess 
condemnation. 

At  the  present  moment  there  is  pending  before  the  legislature  a 
bill  authorizing  such  excess  condemnation  in  our  city,  and  it  is 
believed  that  its  passage  and  subsequent  action  under  it,  will  at 
once  cheapen  the  cost  of  condemnation,  and  through  the  power  of 
the  city  to  acquire  and  then  re-convey,  result  in  a  fair  and  liberal 
treatment  of  owners  perhaps  but  a  few  feet,  and  maybe  only 
inches,  from  the  line  of  the  highway.  If,  pending  the  completion 
of  the  condemnation  proceeding,  there  is  urgent  need  for  the 
physical  improvement  of  such  a  street,  or  the  doing  of  public  work 
therein,  the  board  of  estimate  and  apportionment  may,  under 
prescribed  conditions,  and  by  appropriate  resolutions,  vest  in 
the  city  the  title  of  the  land  in  the  street,  prior  to  the  confirmation 
of  the  report  either  of  the  commissioners  of  estimate  or  the  com- 
missioner of  assessment.  Under  ordinary  conditions,  upon  the 
confirmation  of  the  report  of  the  commissioners  of  estimate  and 
assessment,  the  title  vests  automatically  in  the  city. 

The  expense  of  such  proceeding  for  acquiring  title,  including 
the  amount  of  damages  paid  for  land  acquired,  the  fees  of  com- 
missioners, and  the  cost  to  the  city  for  legal  and  engineering 
services,  is  assessed  upon  the  property  deemed  to  be  benefited  by 
what  is  technically  known  as  the  opening  of  the  street,  excepting, 
however,  so  much  of  such  cost  as  the  board  of  estimate  and  appor- 
tionment may  have  assumed  as  a  charge  against  the  entire  city, 
or  placed  upon  a  borough  or  boroughs  deemed  peculiarly  benefited, 
as  in  the  nature  of  an  assessment  against  that  borough  or  those 
boroughs.  In  many  cases  these  assessments  are  not  paid  for  some 
time.  The  city  may  not  compel  the  payment  of  them  by  tax  sale 
until  three  years  have  elapsed,  and  in  instances  where  the  assess- 
ments exceed  3%  of  the  assessed  value  of  the  property  bearing 
the  assessment,  the  owner  has  the  right,  upon  demand,  to  have  the 
charge  against  his  property  divided  into  ten  annual  instalments, 
so  that  in  such  cases  the  money  is  not  all  collectible  by  the  city 
for  just  that  many  years  after  the  assessment  is  confirmed  and 
entered  for  collection.  The  awards,  however,  must  be  paid  within 


180  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

ninety  days  after  the  confirmation  of  the  report,  under  penalty 
of  interest  being  added  thereto,  because  of  the  possibility  of  the 
cwner  of  the  award  having  the  right  to  compel  payment.  The 
payments,  therefore,  are  made  from  the  so-called  "fund  for  street 
and  park  openings,"  a  special  fund  held  for  this  purpose,  to  which 
the  city  has  lent  its  credit  for  the  purpose  of  providing  operating 
means,  and  into  which  the  assessments,  when  collected,  are  paid. 
In  the  development  of  a  highway,  following  the  acquirement 
of  title,  comes  the  doing  of  physical  work.  Whether  it  should  be 
regulated,  graded,  curbed,  and  the  flag  sidewalks  laid  first,  or 
whether  sewers  should  be  built  first,  is  a  matter  for  the  exercise 
of  individual  judgment  in  each  case.  Sometimes  it  may  be  an 
economy  to  do  one  thing  first,  sometimes  the  other.  In  the  city 
government  at  the  present  moment  and  in  special  cases  where  the 
course  seemed  advisable,  we  are  adopting  the  scheme  of  building 
the  sewer  and  regulating  and  grading  the  street  at  the  same  time 
and  under  one  contract.  Instances  where  that  course  should  be 
pursued  are  exceptional  and  it  is  possible  that  such  a  joint  operation 
should  be  confined  to  cases  where  the  area  of  assessment  for  the 
building  of  the  sewer  and  for  the  regulating  and  grading  of  the 
street  are  obviously  identical.  This  may  not  necessarily  be  so, 
and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  doing  of  work  in  such  a  manner  may 
be  somewhat  further  extended  because  of  the  economy  produced 
in  engineering  and  inspection  charges. 

The  customary  practise  for  the  initiation  of  a  proceeding  to 
do  any  such  physical  work  is  for  the  parties  interested,  or  some  of 
them,  to  petition  the  local  improvement  board  for  the  initiation 
of  the  proceeding  for  the  work.  This  board  consists  of  the  alder- 
men residing  in  the  local  improvement  district,  and  is  presided 
over  by  the  president  of  the  borough,  who  has  a  veto  power  upon 
the  action  of  the  board. 

Up  to  the  last  two  years  it  was  the  custom  of  the  local  boards 
to  act  favorably  upon  almost  every  petition  presented,  whether  it 
was  signed  by  one  property  owner  or  a  great  number,  unless  there 
was  considerable  local  opposition  to  the  contemplated  improve- 
ment. Such  opposition  sometimes  resulted  in  action  by  the  local 
board  disapproving  of  the  doing  of  the  desired  work.  There  were, 
however,  but  few  cases  of  such  disapproval.  Work  for  several 


HIGHWAYS  AND   PUBLIC   WORKS  181 

years  was  done  on  a  very  large  scale.  It  cannot  be  gainsaid  that 
in  most  of  the  boroughs  local  improvement  work  of  this  kind  was 
done  considerably  in  advance  of  actual  necessities.  The  result 
was  a  serious  depletion  of  that  other  special  fund  from  which  the 
cost  of  the  doing  of  such  work  is  paid,  the  "street  improvement 
fund." 

In  order  to  conserve  this  fund,  for  nearly  a  year  and  a  half 
past,  a  considerably  closer  scrutiny  has  been  exercised  by  many 
of  the  local  boards,  encouraged  by  the  knowledge  that  otherwise 
the  scrutiny  would  be  exercised  by  the  board  of  estimate  and 
apportionment.  To  this  end,  it  has  been  the  aim  of  the  board  of 
estimate  and  apportionment  to  cause  the  -widest  possible  pub- 
licity among  the  property  owners  affected  to  be  given  the  possible 
inception  of  these  local  improvements.  Many  of  the  local  boards 
have  co-operated  in  a  laudable  way.  In  at  least  one  borough, 
after  the  presentation  of  a  petition  for  the  institution  of  a  local 
improvement,  a  personal  canvass  is  made  of  the  owners  of  prop- 
erty who  would  bear  the  cost,  thus  notifying  them  of  the  pendency 
of  the  application,  and  in  addition  to  obtaining  their  views,  afford- 
ing them  an  opportunity  to  appear  and  be  heard  either  in  favor 
or  in  opposition  at  the  regular  meeting  of  the  local  board. 

When  the  local  board  has  approved  a  proposed  improvement 
in  the  highways,  whether  that  improvement  be  for  regulating 
and  grading,  for  the  building  of  a  sewer,  or  for  paving,  the  matter 
is  transmitted  to  the  board  of  estimate  and  apportionment. 
There  its  merits  are  again  examined.  That  board  presumes 
that  such  an  improvement  is  necessary  if  it  is  needed  to  improve 
sanitary  conditions,  to  eliminate  danger,  or  to  ensure  the  safety 
of  public  travel,  if  substantial  improvement  of  the  abutting 
property  by  the  owners  is  contingent  upon  and  will  follow  the 
improvement,  if  the  street  to  be  improved  will  serve  as  a  needed 
connecting  link  for  traffic,  if  the  improvement  is  favored  by  the 
owners  of  50%  or  more  of  the  abutting  property,  or  if  50%  or 
more  of  the  abutting  property  has  been  improved.  If  the  board 
of  estimate  is  satisfied  that  none  of  these  conditions  exists,  then 
some  special  reason  must  be  shown  to  justify  the  improvement. 
If  the  board  believes  the  improvement  justified,  it  gives  what  is 
known  as  "preliminary  authorization"  for  the  work. 


182  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

Upon  this  authorization,  the  borough  authorities  proceed  to 
•make  the  necessary  surveys  and  to  prepare  the  necessary  plans, 
contract  and  specifications.  When  the  corporation  counsel  has 
approved  the  contract,  as  required  by  law,  the  matter  is  returned 
to  the  board  of  estimate  and  apportionment  for  its  final  authoriza- 
tion to  do  the  work.  There  is  an  exception  to  this  rule,  however, 
in  that  public  improvements  involving  an  expenditure  of  less 
than  $2,000  may  be  made  when  authorized  by  the  local  board 
of  public  improvement  alone.  Upon  the  final  authorization  by 
the  board  of  estimate  and  apportionment,  or  in  the  case  of  the 
small  improvements  mentioned,  by  the  local  board,  the  work, 
where  the  amount  involved  is  over  $1,000,  is  let  upon  public 
bidding  at  unit  prices  for  the  different  classes  of  work,  the  low- 
ness  of  the  various  bids  being  tested  by  the  estimated  quantities 
of  each  class  of  work  prepared  by  the  engineering  forces.  Where 
the  amount  involved  is  less  than  $1,000,  there  need  not  be  public 
bidding,  but  the  practise  in  cases  where  bids  are  not  publicly 
received  pursuant  to  public  advertisement,  is  to  require  the  sub- 
mission of  estimates  by  not  less  than  three,  and  generally  by  not 
less  than  five  bidders. 

It  is  needless  to  follow  the  contract  through  the  various  steps 
of  award,  such  as  signing,  the  giving  of  sureties,  and  the  certi- 
fication by  the  comptroller;  but  upon  the  completion  of  these 
formalities  and  at  such  time  as  may  be  desirable  and  practicable, 
the  contractor  is  ordered  to  proceed  with  his  work.  The  time 
fixed  for  so  commencing  the  work  is  necessarily  determined  as  a 
practical  matter.  No  wise  engineer  would  order  a  job  that  in- 
volved the  laying  of  concrete  to  commence  in  the  months  of  mid- 
winter; neither  would  he  order  ahead  in  such  months  work  which 
involved  merely  surface  excavation  of  frozen  ground.  Other 
work,  such  as  deep  excavation  and  rock  excavation,  may  properly 
be  ordered  to  proceed  at  any  time. 

The  work  proceeds  always  under  supervision  of  the  engineers 
and  of  an  inspector  skilled  in  the  particular  work  in  hand.  Pro- 
gress payments  are  made  as  the  work  goes  on,  and  final  payments 
upon  its  completion,  saving  in  some  cases  retained  sums  which 
are  held  for  different  periods  of  time  to  ensure  that  the  work 
delivered  is  according  to  contract  and  has  no  inherent  defects 
which  could  not  be  discerned  during  its  progress. 


HIGHWAYS  AND  PUBLIC  WORKS  183 

The  regulating  and  grading  of  streets  is  almost  invariably  the 
doing  of  a  standard  class  of  work.  There  has  been  but  little 
change  in  the  result  achieved  for  many  years  past,  although  in 
recent  years  concrete  is  being  more  largely  used  f6r  sidewalks, 
and  in  some  boroughs  for  curbs,  an  incident  of  the  general  wider 
use  of  that  material. 

The  same  thing  is  true  to  a  large  extent  with  sewers,  although 
there,  also,  concrete  is  more  and  more  largely  used,  and  is  proving 
more  desirable  in  every  respect  than  the  old  style  of  brick  construc- 
tion. 

In  paving,  more  than  in  any  pther  street  improvement,  has 
change  been  wrought.  Cobblestones  are  no  longer  used.  Paving 
has  become  a  specialty.  The  kind  of  paving  that  is  well  adapted 
to  one  class  of  road  or  one  class  of  traffic  may  not  be  well  adapted 
to  another  class  of  road  or  another  class  of  traffic.  Waterbound 
macadam  is  no  longer  used  except  in  outlying  roads  for  temporary 
use,  in  order  to  make  some  road,  not  yet  ready  for  improvement  as- 
a  city  street,  safe  and  usable  for  the  class  of  traffic  which  uses  it. 
Where  formerly  sheet  asphalt  was  laid  on  varying  kinds  of  founda- 
tions, it  is  now  uniformly  laid  on  a  concrete  foundation  from  four 
to  six  inches  in  thickness.  The  old  granite  block  paving  laid  on 
a  sand  foundation  is  now  used  only  as  a  temporary  pavement  where 
a  street,  although  somewhat  heavily  traveled  over,  is  as  yet  not 
developed  to  such  an  extent  as  would  warrant  the  expense  of  a 
final  permanent  pavement  of  granite. 

Under  present-day  methods  this  granite-block  pavement  tem- 
porarily laid  is  not  thrown  away  or  sold  at  a  nominal  price,  as  was 
formerly  the  custom,  but  in  many  cases,  when  the  time  comes  to 
re-lay  on  a  concrete  foundation  a  granite  pavement  originally  laid 
on  a  sand  foundation,  the  very  blocks  which  have  endured  from 
twelve  to  fifteen  years  of  wear,  without  being  removed  from  the 
work,  are  cut  in  half,  redressed  to  form  half -inch  joints,  and  re-set 
upon  the  concrete  foundation  newly  laid.  When  this  is  set,  the 
vertical  joints  are  filled  with  tar  and  gravel,  or  Portland  cement 
grout  of  a  rich  character.  Pavements  of  granite  thus  re-dressed 
and  re-laid  in  cement  are  to-day  deemed  our  most  satisfactory  and 
lasting  pavement.  They  are  economical  in  cost;  they  have  the 
smoothness,  almost,  of  an  asphalt  pavement ;  and  their  wearing 


184  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

qualities  are  far  superior  to  those  of  the  same  granite  blocks  set  in 
sand. 

One  not  considering  the  matter  thoughtfully  fails  to  realize  the 
great  interest  of  the  city  in  pavements,  and  indeed,  the  very  con- 
siderable cost  of  pavements.  Sewers  once  built  are  built  for 
several  generations.  Streets  once  regulated  and  graded  may  be 
said  to  be  regulated  and  graded  almost  forever.  Pavements, 
however,  require  constant  care  and  the  most  careful  supervision. 
The  erection  of  buildings,  the  laying  of  sub-surface  structures,  the 
breaking  now  and  then  of  a  water  pipe  or  other  pipe  beneath  the 
surface, — all  these  things  make  a.  more  or  less  constant  disturbance 
of  the  surface  of  the  street.  Notwithstanding  every  safeguard 
which  can  be  provided  and  every  precaution  which  is  now  taken, 
such  as  to  inquire  before  the  laying  of  a  pavement  whether  any 
water  pipes  are  to  be  laid,  whether  the  gas  companies  desire  in  any 
way  to  readjust  their  pipes,  whether  street  railway  companies 
desire  to  change  their  tracks,  and  even  to  ask  private  owners 
whether  they  contemplate  in  any  way  the  doing  of  work  which 
would  require  an  interference  with  the  pavement,  it  is  rare  that  a 
new  pavement  is  long  laid  before  someone  for  some  purpose  desires 
to  make  an  opening  in  it. 

In  this  city  there  are  1,625  miles  of  paved  streets,  exclusive  of 
those  paved  with  bituminous  or  waterbound  macadam,  and  in 
addition  there  are  669.1  miles  of  bituminous  and  waterbound 
macadam  pavements.  The  maintenance  cost  of  these,  great  as 
it  is,  does  not  suffice  to  prevent  them  from  wearing  out,  and  the 
replacement  cost  is  indicative  of  what  that  wearing  out  means. 
In  the  year  1914  payments  for  re-paving  were  as  follows: 

Manhattan,  $1,478,216.94;  Brooklyn,  $868,427.55;  Queens, 
$447,448.08;  Richmond,  $306,117.17;  The  Bronx,  $519,361.32; 
all  boroughs,  $3,619,571.06. 

In  the  year  preceding,  expenses  for  the  same  purpose  were  as 
follows : 

Manhattan,  $2,590,296.19;  Brooklyn,  $1,536,238.88;  Queens, 
$508,377.58;  Richmond,  $417.094.01;  The  Bronx,  $493,002.02; 
all  boroughs,  $5,545,008.68. 

The  vastness  of  the  interest  of  the  city  in  its  streets  may  be 
seen  from  these  figures.  It  is  a  fortunate  thing  that  some  part  of 


HIGHWAYS  AND  PUBLIC   WORKS  185 

the  cost  of  that  re-paving,  and  a  not  inconsiderable  part,  is  borne 
by  the  street  railway  companies,  whose  legal  obligation  it  is  to 
pave  the  space  within  and  between  their  tracks,  and  a  space  of 
two  feet  outside  the  tracks. 

So  much  for  the  upbuilding  of  the  streets  and  highways.  In 
addition  to  their  care,  so  far  as  maintenance  of  pavements  goes, 
of  which  I  have  just  spoken,  they  require  constant  daily  care. 
They  must  be  kept  clean.  This  function  of  street  cleaning  is 
generally  discharged  by  the  street  cleaning  department,  except  in 
the  boroughs  of  Queens  and  Richmond,  where  the  borough 
president's  office  discharges  that  function.  Indeed,  the  borough 
president's  office  in  the  other  three  boroughs  discharges  the 
function  to  a  limited  extent.  It  has  been  held,  and  custom  has 
made  it  a  fixed  practise,  that  the  street  cleaning  department 
should  not  clean  other  streets  than  those  upon  which  the  more 
permanent  types  of  pavement  are  laid.  This  leaves  all  other 
streets — being  those  paved  with  macadam,  as  well  as  those  not 
paved  at  all — to  be  cleaned  by  the  borough  president's  office,  as 
an  incident  to  their  maintenance.  Much  may  be  said  in  favor  of 
committing  to  the  borough  presidents  the  entire  charge  of  street 
cleaning  in  the  respective  boroughs.  It  is  one  of  the  physical 
things  with  which  the  people  of  the  borough  have  to  do.  It  is 
one  of  the  things  for  which  almost  everyone  not  specially  informed 
deems  the  borough  president  responsible.  Placing  it  under  the 
borough  administration  would  render  possible  a  greater  elasticity 
in  the  labor  service;  for  during  the  winter  months,  and  particu- 
larly during  snowfalls,  when  the  labor  force  of  the  street  cleaning 
department  is  inadequate,  the  highway  laboring  forces,  which  are 
then  largely  unemployed,  could  be  profitably  utilized.  It  would 
avoid  divided  control  of  the  street  itself. 

The  same  argument  might  be  advanced  as  to  highways  through 
parks,  now  to  some  extent  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  respective 
park  commissioners.  The  trained  highway  engineers  are  in  the 
borough  presidents'  offices,  not  in  the  offices  of  the  park  com- 
missioners. The  talent  of  the  park  department  engineers  is  nec- 
essarily developed  in  a  different  direction.  The  unity  of  the  high- 
way system  of  a  borough  would  be  improved  by  placing  all  the 
highways  in  that  borough  under  the  control  of  the  same  expert 


186  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

force.  The  engineers  of  highways  in  the  different  boroughs  would 
possibly  make  very  poor  work  of  designing  park  effects.  That  is 
not  their  specialty  any  more  than  it  is  the  province  of  engineers 
who  have  that  for  a  specialty,  to  build  roads  and  lay  pavements. 


DISCUSSION   OF  STREET  CLEANING 

JOHN   T.  FETHERSTON 
Commissioner  of  Street  Cleaning 

History 

THE  department  of  street  cleaning  in  the  old  city  of  New  York  was 
created  in  1881.     On  consolidation  in  1898  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
department  was  extended  throughout  the  five  boroughs  of  Greater 
New  York  until  1902,  when  street  cleaning  in  the  boroughs  of  Queens  and 
Richmond  was  placed  under  control  of  the  respective  borough  presidents. 
To-day  the  department  of  street  cleaning  has  jurisdiction  in  Manhattan, 
Brooklyn  and  The  Bronx,  covering  a  territory  of  approximately  85,898 
acres,  including  28,535,010  square  yards  of  pavement,  and  having  a 
population  of  5,190,779  in  1914. 

Organization 

The  department  is  administered  by  a  commissioner  appointed  by  the 
mayor,  with  a  deputy  commissioner  in  each  of  the  three  boroughs  and  one 
deputy  in  the  main  office.  Three  general  divisions  of  the  force  are  recog- 
nized: First,  the  uniformed  force,  under  direction  of  a  general  superintend- 
ent, organized  on  a  semi-military  basis  as  the  line  division;  second,  the 
clerical  staff;  and  third,  a  new  division,  created  in  1914,  known  as  the 
technical  or  planning  division.  The  total  force  on  the  rolls  consists  of 
7,153  men,  of  whom  1,500  are  extra  employes  for  replacing  absentees  in 
the  sweeping  and  driving  forces. 

The  unit  of  organization  is  a  district,  containing  on  the  average  250,000 
residents,  in  direct  control  of  a  district  superintendent,  who  has  charge  of 
all  street  cleaning  activities  within  the  area.  The  responsibility  is  thus 
definitely  fixed  upon  one  individual  for  all  operations  within  a  given 
territory. 

Functions 
The  main  functions  of  the  department  are: 

(a)  The  cleaning  of  streets. 

(b)  The  collection  and  removal  of  refuse,  consisting  of  ashes,  garbage, 
rubbish  and  street  sweepings. 

(c)  The  disposal  of  various  classes  of  waste. 

(d)  The  seizure  of  roadway  incumbrances. 

(e)  The  removal  of  snow  and  ice. 

(187) 


188  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

Sub-functions  include  the  maintenance,  care  and  operation  of  stables, 
horses  and  equipment;  repairs,  renewals  and  replacement  of  structures 
and  equipment  by  a  mechanical  division;  accounting  and  cost-keeping 
control  through  the  main  office  records;  disciplinary  control  through 
published  orders  and  codes  of  penalties  for  violations  of  rules. 

The  regular  appropriation  for  the  street  cleaning  department  in  1914 
amounted  to  $7,646,187,  or  at  the  rate  of  $1.47  per  capita  per  annum. 
In  1910  the  cost  per  capita  per  annum  was  $2.05. 

Problems 

Street  cleaning  employes  have  definite  tasks  assigned,  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  which  they  are  held  responsible.  Each  sweeper,  driver, 
foreman  and  superintendent  has  a  designated  area  or  route  to  cover  and  a 
definite  task  to  perform  within  a  given  time  and,  regardless  of  hours,  the 
work  must  be  completed.  Thus,  a  day  with  regular  hours  is  the  exception 
rather  than  the  rule  in  the  department.  Officers  work  nine  to  ten  hours 
normally;  drivers  of  refuse  collection  vehicles  work  until  their  respective 
routes  are  cleaned,  which  averages  not  less  than  nine  hours  a  day,  and 
ten  hours  during  the  winter  season,  when  the  amount  of  refuse  produced 
is  at  a  maximum. 

With  7,153  employes  the  human  problem  is  naturally  a  complex  one,  and 
it  is  further  complicated  by  the  fact  that  the  men  are  the  lowest  paid 
employes  in  the  city  service. 

An  inventory  of  department  conditions  early  in  1914  showed: 

(a)  That  the  personnel  was  generally  satisfactory,  but  that  the  men 
needed  instruction  and  guidance  in  order  that  their  work  might  be  made 
more  effective. 

(6)   That  the  equipment  of  the  department  was  the  same  as  that 

installed  by  Colonel  Waring  over  seventeen  years  ago,  and  needed  radical 

improvement  to  meet  demands  for  higher  standards  of  outdoor  cleanliness. 

.  (c)   That  the  methods  pursued  were  capable  of  improvement  through 

intensive  studies  by  a  competent  technical  staff. 

From  a  sanitary  point  of  view  it'  was  apparent  that  thorough  cleansing 
of  streets  was  necessary  to  supplement  the  system  of  hand  sweeping  and 
machine  sweeping  in  voguej  and  that  the  open  ash  can,  the  open  ash  cart, 
the  open  waterfront  dump  and  the  open  methods  of  disposal  of  refuse, 
all  nuisances  affecting  the  health,  comfort  and  convenience  of  the  people, 
must  be  modified  and  improved  to  meet  the  higher  standards  demanded  by 
citizens.  Sidewalks  in  charge  of  occupants  and  roadways  under  city 
control  must  be  maintained  in  equally  cleanly  condition  to  achieve  a 
uniform  degree  of  street  sanitation. 


HIGHWAYS  AND  PUBLIC  WORKS  189 

What  Has  Been  Done 

A  complete  program  was  drafted  in  1914  to  meet  the  demand  for 
improved  street  conditions: 

(a)  Model  District 

Funds  have  been  appropriated  for  the  installation  of  modern  equipment 
in  a  so-called  "model  district,"  designed  to  obviate  the  nuisance  attending 
the  collection  and  handling  of  refuse.  According  to  this  plan  horse-drawn 
equipment  will  be  replaced  by  motor-driven  tractor-trailer  units,  so 
arranged  that  refuse  may  be  placed  in  a  standard  type  of  receptacle  and 
emptied  into  compartments  on  trailers  without  allowing  the  escape  of 
dust  or  odors.  The  same  tractor  will  be  used  at  night  for  thorough 
cleansing  of  streets  by  flushing  or  machine  sweeping,  and  during  the  snow 
period,  the  tractors  when  fitted  with  snow  plows  will  be  utilized  for 
clearing  roadways  and  removing  snow.  The  purpose  of  the  model- 
district  program  is  to  eliminate  the  nuisances  within  the  populous  districts, 
and  the  plan  will  be  extended  to  all  parts  of  the  city  as  fast  as  the  tests 
in  the  model  district  have  proved  the  sanitary  efficiency  and  economy  of 
the  designs,  and  as  funds  are  available  for  the  purpose.  To  carry  out 
this  program  will  require  an  investment  of  approximately  $250,000  per 
district,  and  will  save  $50,000  per  year  in  each  district.  Completely  to 
equip  the  department  with  modern  apparatus  will  involve  an  ultimate 
investment  of  about  $6,000,000,  spread  over  a  period  of  years,  with  an 
estimated  reduction  in  annual  expenses  of  $1,000,000. 

(b)  Final  Disposition 

The  methods  pursued  to-day  in  the  final  disposition  of  refuse  are  not 
only  unsanitary,  but  costly.  In  1914  the  city  paid  contractors  about 
$1,400,000  for  the  disposal  of  refuse,  and  this  expense  under  the  present 
system  will  increase  with  the  growth  of  population.  A  committee  of  the 
board  of  estimate  and  apportionment  studied  the  problem  of  waste  disposal 
in  1912,  and  recommended  the  adoption  of  a  complete  utilization  system, 
on  a  profit-sharing  contract  basis,  involving  an  investment  of  approxi- 
mately $9,000,000  in  plant  and  equipment.  Under  this  plan  garbage 
would  be  treated  by  the  reduction  process  for  the  recovery  of  grease  and 
fertilizer  base;  the  valuable  portions  of  rubbish  would  be  reclaimed  and 
the  residue  burned  for  the  production  of  steam  power;  ashes  would  be 
screened  and  the  unburned  coal  (which  varies  between  20%  and  40%  by 
weight  of  all  ashes  collected)  would  be  utilized  for  the  production  of 
power;  street  sweepings  and  fine  ash  would  be  used  for  land  fills.  It 
was  estimated  that  through  this  process,  under  normal  conditions,  with 


190  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

efficiently  operated  plants,  it  would  be  possible  to  pay  all  operating 
expenses  and  fixed  charges,  and  obtain  a  profit  of  approximately  10% 
on  the  investment.  This  would  mean  a  saving  of  $2,300,000  per  annum, 
compared  with  the  methods  of  1914.  Of  this  amount  the  city  would  save 
at  least  $1,400,000,  the  present  cost  of  disposal,  and  a  proportion  of  the 
profits,  depending  upon  the  city's  investment  in  the  project.  A  bill  to 
carry  out  this  plan  was  submitted  to  three  sessions  of  the  legislature,  and 
was  passed  in  1915,  but  was  vetoed  by  the  governor.  The  city  to-day 
is  therefore  unable  to  take  advantage  of  the  proposed  plan  except  through 
municipal  ownership  and  operation  of  final  disposition  works,  and  under 
existing  financial  conditions  it  is  doubtful  if  the  improvements  can  be 
carried  out. 

The  realization  of  a  sanitary  and  economical  system  of  final  disposition 
projected  for  the  department  would  have  resulted  in  the  elimination  of 
present  nuisances  at  disposal  works,  waterfront  dumps,  and  land  fills, 
besides  saving  millions  of  dollars  to  the  city,  and  it  is  believed  that  the 
proposed  plan  is  so  logical  and  sound  in  conception  that  temporary 
defeats  will  result  only  in  delaying  its  final  acceptance  and  adoption. 

(c]  Snow  Work 

The  most  difficult  problem  of  the  street  cleaning  department  is  the 
removal  of  snow  and  ice  from  roadways.  In  1914  over  5,000,000  cubic 
yards  of  snow  were  removed  at  a  cost  of  about  $2,500,000.  The  maximum 
rate  of  removal  depended  upon  the  number  of  trucks  available  for  this 
work,  and  3,000  vehicles  represented  this  limit.  As  an  average  truck 
holds  5  cubic  yards  of  snow  and  can  make  ten  trips  per  day,  the  maximum 
rate  of  snow  removal  by  trucking  was  150,000  cubic  yards  per  day  in  1914. 

To  increase  the  rapidity  of  snow  removal  a  new  plan  was  tried  in  1915, 
and  the  "snow  fighting"  force  was  organized  to  start  work  during  the 
storm  and  place  snow  in  sewers  for  disposal  by  water  transportation 
instead  of  trucking  to  the  rivers  and  bay. 

This  plan  involved  the  registration  of  40,000  "snow  fighters,"  operating 
in  eight-hour  shifts,  with  12,000  emergency  men  per  shift. 

Three  snow  storms  were  fought  in  this  way  during  the  winter  of  1915, 
and  compared  with  previous  years  the  work  was  completed  in  half  the 
time  at  less  than  half  the  cost. 

Centralized  v.  Local  Street  Cleaning  Departments 

Discussion  of  charter  revision  will  inevitably  raise  the  question  of  the 
relative  advantages  of  a  central  department  of  street  cleaning  v.  local 
departments  under  the  control  of  the  borough  presidents,  and  this  should 


HIGHWAYS  AND   PUBLIC   WORKS  191 

be  settled  if  possible  on  a  basis  of  fact  rather  than  opinion.  If  it  is  con- 
ceded that  adequate  administrative  control  can  be  secured  through  a 
centralized  department,  there  is  little  doubt  that  economy  should  result 
through  standardization  of  personnel,  equipment  and  methods.  From 
1898  to  1902  the  department  of  street  cleaning  had  jurisdiction  over  all 
five  boroughs,  but  was  not  organized  to  meet  local  conditions  in  Queens 
and  Richmond.  Thus  these  boroughs  felt  that  they  were  neglected,  and 
street  cleaning  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  respective  borough  presidents. 
The  cost  of  street  cleaning  in  Queens  has  increased  from  $95,742.73  in 
1902  to  $512,737.39  in  1914;  in  Richmond  the  cost  has  increased  from 
$75,894.53  in  1902  to  $205,272.92  in  1914;  while  the  cost  of  the  depart- 
ment of  street  cleaning  has  increased  from  $5,392,823.11  in  1902  to 
$7,726,404.67  in  1914.  Thus,  in  twelve  years  the  cost  in  Queens  has 
increased  435.4%  with  127.3%  increase  in  population;  in  Richmond 
170.4%  with  42.9%  increase  in  population;  and  under  the  department 
of  street  cleaning  in  the  other  three  boroughs,  43.2%  with  48.7%  increase 
in  population.  The  foregoing  costs  are  exclusive  of  snow  removal. 

It  is  possible  that  street  cleaning  proper  and  the  collection  of  refuse 
within  the  boundaries  of  a  borough  might  be  placed  in  charge  of  the 
borough  president,  but  the  final  disposition  of  wastes  as  a  borough  problem 
could  not  be  economically  carried  out  locally,  as  the  revenues  from  the 
utilization  of  by-products  depend  upon  mass  treatment  of  the  wastes. 
All  indications  point  to  the  advantages  of  a  centralized  refuse  disposal 
plant  to  serve  Manhattan,  The  Bronx,  Brooklyn,  and  possibly  a  portion 
of  the  north  shore  of  Queens,  and  these  advantages  would  be  lost  in 
subdividing  the  work  by  boroughs. 

A  centralized  department  has  advantages  in  the  purchase  of  materials, 
plant  and  equipment  over  local  divisions  and,  given  a  skilled  planning 
division,  making  intensive  studies  of  men,  equipment  and  methods,  there 
is  little  doubt  that  the  centralized  department  has  many  advantages 
over  local  borough  divisions.  It  is  recognized,  of  course,  that  forms  of 
organization  and  legislative  enactments  are  not  the  determining  factors 
in  efficiency  and  economy  of  governmental  service,  and  if  charter  revision 
is  to  set  up  new  standards  of  administration,  it  is  suggested  that  means  for 
securing  and  retaining  competent  officials  are  more  important  than  the 
size  or  form  of  organization. 

Perhaps  the  most  successful  administrator  in  the  history  of  the  govern- 
ment of  New  York  was  Colonel  Waring  of  the  street  cleaning  department, 
who  gave  as  the  reason  for  his  success  that  he  "did  the  work  for  its  own 
sake,  and  any  other  commissioner  who  followed  this  principle  would 
have  equal  success  in  his  particular  sphere  of  action." 


192  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

LEWIS  H.  POUNDS,  President  of  the  Borough  of  Brooklyn: 

I  am  not  going  to  say  much  about  street  cleaning,  but  I  may  say  that 
until  Commissioner  Fetherston  took  charge  of  the  job,  we  were  ready 
and  anxious  in  each  of  our  boroughs  to  take  the  task  of  street  cleaning. 
Since  he  has  taken  charge  we  are  not  so  certain  whether  we  ought  to 
undertake  it,  nor  is  our  desire  so  keen.  He  is  doing  so  well  that  probably 
the  existing  organization  will  continue. 

I  have  had  prepared  a  table  giving  the  kinds  of  pavement,  with  the 
number  of  miles  and  the  square  yards  in  each  borough. 

Out  of  a  total  of  1,625  miles  of  permanent  pavement  throughout  the 
greater  city,  Brooklyn  has  no  less  than  734,  Manhattan  coming  second 
with  452,  while  Queens  has  205,  The  Bronx  183  and  Richmond  52.  For 
the  money  used  in  construction  and  maintenance  and  the  mileage,  there 
is  not  a  city  on  the  face  of  the  earth  that  can  show  better  pavements 
than  the  borough  of  Brooklyn.  European  cities,  of  course,  have  some 
of  the  finest  streets  in  the  world,  but  many  of  their  back  streets,  off  the 
main  lines  of  travel,  are  not  up  to  the  standard  of  those  other  streets, 
while  we  use  only  asphalt  and  granite,  with  wood  block,  to  a  limited 
extent,  and  our  little-traveled  back  streets  are  just  as  well  paved  as  our 
main  streets. 

Our  asphalt  plant  in  Brooklyn  has  been  of  material  assistance  in  keep- 
ing up  the  quality  of  our  streets ;  for  it  is  necessary  to  repair  at  once  and 
repave  quickly  if  you  would  have  your  streets  in  good  condition.  Man- 
hattan has  labored  under  a  disability  in  that  her  asphalt  plants  are  just 
getting  into  operation.  Brooklyn's  asphalt  plant  began  its  useful  exist- 
ence in  1907.  The  cost  the  first  year  was  85  cents  per  cubic  foot;  the 
next  year,  76  cents;  the  next  year,  68  cents;  the  next  year,  57  cents; 
the  next  year,  56  cents;  the  next  year,  47  cents;  in  1913,  45  cents;  in 
1914,  it  was  41  cents.  Those  figures  indicate  efficiency  and  economy 
in  at  least  one  part  of  your  municipal  government.  I  think  the  cost  is 
down  about  as  low  as  it  can  get  now.  The  reduction  has  been  due  largely 
to  reorganization  and  improvements  that  lead  to  the  handling  of  the 
material  in  the  very  best  manner. 

As  for  repairs,  this  question  of  opening  of  pavements  is  a  vexatious 
one.  We  have  been  able  to  reduce  it  considerably,  and  throughout  our 
mileage,  which  is  quite  extensive,  the  number  of  openings  last  year 
was  23,345.  Before  we  pave  a  street  we  give  personal  notice  to  every 
property  owner  on  the  street  that  it  is  going  to  be  repaved;  that  he  must 
put  in  and  adjust  his  sub-surface  improvements;  and  that  we  will  not 
allow  the  pavement  to  be  opened' under  a  year.  That  rule  is  hard  to  en- 
force, but  except  in  case  of  emergency,  we  do  live  up  to  it. 


HIGHWAYS  AND  PUBLIC  WORKS 


193 


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194  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW  YORK   CITY 

I  was  so  disturbed  about  the  number  of  our  openings  that  I  obtained 
the  figures  from  Chicago  and  Philadelphia.  Chicago,  with  about  two 
thousand  miles  of  pavement,  had  during  the  past  year  39,430  openings. 
That  is  worse  than  we  are.  Philadelphia,  on  a  mileage  of  less  than 
fourteen  hundred  miles,  had  23,336  openings. 

Just  a  final  word;  I  will  not  go  into  it  in  detail.  We  are  carrying  on 
in  Brooklyn  for  the  whole  city  perhaps  the  most  advanced  experiment 
in  sewage  disposal  that  is  being  tried  in  this  entire  country.  We  believe 
that  we  have  reached  the  correct  process,  so  far  as  modern  inventions 
make  possible  the  institution  of  machine  methods  to  preserve  our  rivers 
and  our  harbor  from  the  pollution  that  has  been  going  on  all  these  years. 
Our  transit  problem  being  reasonably  settled,  the  next  great  question 
is  our  port  development;  and  after  that,  sewage  disposal.  Manhattan 
has  a  bill  of  about  fifteen  million  dollars  confronting  it  for  that  purpose. 
While  the  other  matters  just  before  you  are  perhaps  immediate,  the 
sewage  problem  is  an  important  one,  and  it  is  going  to  be  solved. 


MARCUS  M.  MARKS,  President  of  the  Borough  of  Manhattan: 

The  borough  president  is  responsible  for  the  departments  of  public 
works  and  buildings.  In  addition,  as  a  member  of  the  board  of 
estimate  and  apportionment,  he  has  the  opportunity  to  obtain  a 
proper  sense  of  perspective  regarding  the  needs  of  all  the  boroughs. 
As  a  member  of  the  board  of  aldermen,  he  has  the  opportunity  to  be  in 
touch  with  the  legislative  department  of  city  government. 

The  department  of  public  works  has  charge  of  the  design,  construc- 
tion and  repair  of  highways,  sidewalks  and  sewers,  as  well  as  the  care 
of  public  buildings,  including  the  municipal  building,  city  hall,  hall  of 
records,  court  houses,  comfort  stations,  public  baths  and  public  markets. 

In  connection  with  highways  the  relative  cost  and  advantages  of 
asphalt,  wood  block  and  granite  block  require  particular  study.  Asphalt 
is  the  cheapest  and  granite  block  the  dearest  in  original  construction. 
Under  heavy  traffic  granite  is  the  most  desirable  and  in  the  long  run 
probably  the  most  economical,  and  it  affords  a  good  foothold  for  horses, 
an  advantage  over  asphalt  and  wood  block.  An  objection  to  granite 
is  its  noise  under  wagon  wheels  that  are  not  rubber-tired.  The  rapidly 
increasing  use  of  rubber  tires,  however,  will,  in  my  judgment,  increase 
the  availability  of  granite  block  paving. 

There  are  at  present  too  many  cuts  being  made  in  the  pavements  on 
account  of  gas,  water  and  other  connections.  In  Manhattan  there  were 
28,000  such  cuts  last  year.  We  are  making  great  efforts  to  reduce  this 


HIGHWAYS  AND  PUBLIC  WORKS  195 

number.  We  shall,  in  the  future,  place  signs  at  the  corners  of  streets 
about  to  be  paved  which  will  give  notice  to  the  property  owners  to  make 
any  sub-surface  connections  before  the  paving  is  placed.  We  are  also 
for  the  first  time  making  public  through  the  daily  press  the  names  and 
numbers  of  streets  to  be  paved  and  the  type  of  pavement  to  be  used. 

We  have  recently  evolved  a  new  type  of  street  sign  which  embraces 
on  one  surface  the  name  of  the  avenue  and  of  the  street  as  well;  so  that 
in  driving  along  the  avenue  one  will  no  longer  be  compelled  to  crane 
the  neck  in  order  to  see  what  street  is  being  passed.  The  new  type  of 
sign  is  placed  so  as  to  be  plainly  visible  by  night  as  well  as  day. 

The  520  miles  of  sewers  in  Manhattan  were  nearly  all  constructed 
between  the  years  1835  and  1870.  There  is  a  necessity  for  large  repair- 
ing forces  and  constant  reconstruction.  There  are  important  problems 
to  be  solved  in  connection  with  our  sewer  development  in  order  to  save 
New  York  harbor  from  sewage  pollution.  In  connection  with  snow 
removal  the  sewers  were  used  during  the  past  winter  more  freely  than 
ever  before. 

The  bureau  of  design  and  survey  handles  all  survey  and  drafting  work 
for  the  several  bureaus  under  the  department  of  public  works.  It  is 
charged  also  with  the  preparation  of  the  official  map  of  the  borough. 
While  the  oldest  of  the  boroughs,  Manhattan  is  least  advanced  in  its 
official  map  because  of  the  great  difficulties  involved  in  tracing  the  old 
streets  back  to  old  Dutch  and  English  days.  The  importance  of  this  work 
is  obvious  when  the  very  large  real  estate  values  which  exist  in  down- 
town New  York  are  considered.  The  thousands  of  miles  of  pipes  beneath 
the  city  streets,  including  in  some  instances  as  many  as  eight  gas  pipes 
under  a  single  roadway,  disclose  the  importance  of  another  branch  of 
the  bureau  of  design  and  survey  which  has  to  do  with  the  mapping  of 
such  sub-surface  structures.  Many  other  activities  of  a  minor  nature 
are  included  under  this  bureau. 

The  bureau  of  buildings  has  charge  of  the  erection  and  alteration 
of  all  buildings  in  the  borough  except  federal  buildings,  the  buildings  along 
the  waterfront  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  department  of  docks  and 
ferries,  and  the  buildings  along  the  transit  lines,  which  are  under  the 
control  of  the  public  service  commission.  This  bureau  also  has  charge 
of  the  safety  of  all  these  buildings,  as  well  as  the  installation  and  changing 
of  the  plumbing  and  drainage  systems,  and  the  quarterly  inspection 
of  all  passenger  elevators.  There  are  in  the  borough  of  Manhattan 
85,000  buildings  at  this  time. 


THE  ADMINISTRATIVE  ORGANIZATION  OP  THE 
COURTS 

WILLIAM   McADOO 

Chief  City  Magistrate 

THE  subject  of  the  magistrates'  court  is  so  large  that  it  is 
possible  to  touch  only  on  some  phases  of  it.  For  instance, 
the  night  court  for  women  is  an  interesting  subject  in 
itself;  that  court  is  a  novelty,  there  being  no  other  such  court  in 
any  part  of  the  world.  The  night  court  for  men  and  the  domestic 
relations  court  are  also  interesting.  The  domestic  relations  court 
was  an  innovation  and  was  not  known  elsewhere  until  the  passage 
of  the  law  of  1910.  So  successful  has  it  been  that  it  has  been 
duplicated  in  Chicago,  and  it  now  seems  to  occupy  a  place  in 
nearly  all  large  cities,  not  only  in  this  country  but  in  other  coun- 
tries. That  is  the  court  where  the  men  who  have  broken  domestic 
china  fix  it  up  the  best  they  can.  Again,  there  is  the  system  of 
probation  in  these  courts,  which  has  been  made  a  centralized 
one  and  is  entirely  different  from  any  other  probation  system  so 
far  as  I  know.  It  has  been  in  operation  now  about  two  years  and 
seems  to  be  a  marked  improvement  on  the  lack  of  system  which 
preceded  it.  There  are  so  many  interesting  phases  of  the  work 
of  these  courts  that  it  is  difficult  to  give  you  a  fair  idea  of  that 
work  as  a  whole. 

A  larger  number  of  people  are  interested  in  the  magistrates' 
court  than  in  any  other  court  in  the  city  of  New  York.  In  round 
numbers,  last  year  about  one  hundred  thirty-seven  thousand 
people  were  arraigned  in  the  magistrates'  courts  of  Manhattan  and 
The  Bronx.  That  is  somewhat  of  a  decrease  from  the  preceding 
year.  About  one  hundred  thousand  of  these  were  arraigned  for 
minor  offenses  of  which  the  magistrate  had  summary  and  final 
jurisdiction.  About  thirty-five  or  thirty-seven  thousand  were 
for  more  or  less  serious  offenses,  either  felonies  or  misdemeanors. 
In  order  to  understand  the  volume  of  business  done  by  these  courts, 
it  is  necessary  to  add  to  these  figures  the  constant  train  of  people 
who  go  into  the  courts  with  complaints. 

(196) 


COURTS  197 

Under  the  rules  of  the  court,  when  it  opens  in  the  morning  the 
officer  in  attendance  asks  those  present  whose  complaints  have 
not  been  taken  by  the  clerk  to  come  forward  and  state  their 
grievances  to  the  magistrate.  It  is  a  sort  of  "O  hear  ye,  O  hear 
ye!  all  ye  who  have  business,  come  forward  now  and  it  will  be 
attended  to."  When  this  universal  invitation  is  extended  to  the 
populace  of  one  of  our  busy  courts,  you  can  rest  assured  that  the 
citizens  are  not  backward  in  coming  forward.  The  magistrate 
then  really  is  a  Cadi  such  as  you  read  about  in  Oriental  tales. 
Here  is  a  lady  who  has  a  grievance  against  the  lady  living  across 
the  hall  in  the  tenement  house, — not  a  very  serious  matter.  She 
has  been  to  court  on  the  preceding  day  and  secured  a  summons 
which  in  general  terms  states  that  the  other  lady  was  guilty  of 
"disorderly  conduct,"  which,  like  charity,  covers  a  multitude  of 
sins.  Both  ladies  are  inclined  to  talk  at  once  and  talk  volubly  and 
emphatically,  and  their  opinions  of  each  other  are  not  complimen- 
tary. I  have  found  that  the  best  way  is  to  allow  them  to  talk 
until  they  are  thoroughly  exhausted,  at  which  juncture  they  are 
ready  to  shake  hands  and  go  home.  The  magistrates'  court  in 
such  cases  is  simply  a  safety  valve,  a  sort  of  first  aid  to  the  injured 
in  what  might  result  in  serious  disease.  We  arrest  the  develop- 
ment of  the  wound  at  once  by  patching  it  up  and  putting  a  little 
sticking  plaster  on  it,  and  the  patients  go  home  in  many  cases 
perfectly  contented. 

Then,  of  course,  there  are  a  number  of  hungry  creditors  who 
come  in  and  at  once  try  to  make  the  transaction  on  the  part  of 
the  debtor  a  larcenous  one.  They  insist  upon  starting  the  whole 
machinery  of  the  criminal  law  in  order  to  force  a  settlement  or 
collect  a  debt.  All  these  cases  have  to  be  heard,  but  they  do  not 
go  into  the  record  as  the  work  of  the  magistrate.  As  I  say,  in 
view  of  this  variety,  the  difficulty  is  to  tell  you  briefly  and  pointedly 
just  what  the  magistrates'  courts  have  been,  what  they  are,  and 
what  we  hope  they  will  be. 

For  many  years  preceding  1910,  the  magistrates'  courts  in  all 
parts  of  Greater  New  York  deservedly  or  otherwise  were  somewhat 
in  disrepute.  The  office  of  magistrate  was  looked  upon  as  simply 
one  for  political  preferment,  the  magistrate  to  be  selected  for  active 
partisan  services  and  without  regard  to  merit  or  character. 


198  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

The  courts  themselves  were  physically  badly  provided  for. 
Any  sor.t  of  place  was  thought  fit  to  be  the  habitation  of  a  magis- 
trates' court.  The  buildings  which  the  city  had  erected  for  that 
purpose  were  grotesque  specimens  of  architecture  and  the  internal 
arrangement  was  so  complicated  that  no  one  could  solve  it. 
The  whole  surroundings  were  in  many  instances  dirty,  vulgar  and 
depressing.  The  Essex  Market  court  was  condemned  by  many 
grand  juries.  These  surroundings  had  their  effect  not  only  on  the 
magistrates  and  the  officers  but  on  those  who  came  to  the  courts. 

The  magistrates'  courts  in  those  days  were  officered  by  police- 
men. The  policeman  in  a  magistrate's  court,  generally  speaking, 
got  himself  detailed  to  that  business  by  personal  or  political 
influence.  He  was  a  large  and  stolid  looking  gentleman  of  the 
fetlock  type,  and  his  manner  toward  the  court  and  all  concerned 
with  it  was  that  of  a  proprietor.  These  policemen  acted  as  the 
court  attendants.  They  were  also  probation  officers  assigned  to 
each  individual  magistrate,  and  they  had  charge  of  the  prisoners 
from  the  time  they  came  to  the  court  until  they  left.  Some  of 
these  worthy  persons  had  been  in  some  of  the  courts  from  ten  to 
fifteen  years,  during  which  time  their  colleagues  on  the  force  had 
been  chasing  burglars  or  had  got  shot  by  desperate  criminals,  but 
they  themselves  persisted  in  the  easy  occupation  of  rattling  the 
ice-pitcher  in  the  summer  and  the  radiator  in  the  winter  and 
getting  the  confidence  and  favor  of  the  judge  in  every  possible 
way. 

The  courtrooms  themselves  were  marvellous  pieces  of  judicial 
construction,  if  I  may  use  that  term.  A  portion  of  the  courtroom 
called  the  bar  was  separated  from  the  audience  by  a  large  wire 
screen  about  ten  feet  high.  A  small  platform  raised  about  a  foot 
from  the  ground  in  front  of  the  bench  was  called  the  bridge.  On 
this  bridge  or  small  platform,  or  immediately  adjacent  thereto, 
when  the  court  was  in  active  operation,  were  gathered  the  prisoner, 
the  lawyers,  the  policemen,  the  interpreter,  the  stenographer,  and 
possibly  a  friend  of  the  defendant  who  was  there  to  assure  His 
Honor  that  although  the  charge  might  be  burglary,  the  defendant 
was  a  loving  father,  a  kind  husband,  an  affectionate  brother  and 
a  model  citizen. 

Of  course,  with  this  cluster  of  people  around  the  magistrate 


COURTS  199 

it  was  impossible  to  see  him  at  all.  The  whole  proceedings  were 
carried  on  in  a  delightful  air  of  seclusion.  The  outside  public 
heard  nothing  of  the  proceedings.  The  tone  of  voice  was  modulated 
and  low,  and  the  distance  between  the  magistrate  and  those 
speaking  to  him  was  but  a  matter  of  a  few  inches.  The  defendant 
himself  was  generally  relegated  to  the  rear  of  the  bridge,  so  that 
he  never  knew  what  happened  to  him  until  the  large,  stout  police- 
man either  gave  him  a  punch  in  the  back  and  told  him  to  go  out 
or  took  him  down-stairs  again.  His  part  in  the  play  was  small. 
The  policemen  who  acted  as  ushers  were  generally  critical  of 
citizens  who  intruded.  There  was  an  air  of  privacy  about  the 
court.  Most  of  the  cases  were  taken  to  lawyers  by  men  called 
"runners"  who  were  looking  for  business  for  them,  so  that  if  a 
well-dressed  person  came  to  the  court,  the  runner  was  supposed  to 
size  up  his  financial  possibilities  for  the  lawyer  employer  and  direct 
the  steps  of  the  citizen  to  this  lawyer's  office  where  he  would  be 
well  taken  care  of.  In  this  way,  of  course,  an  ordinary  citizen 
going  in  was  intruding.  A  singular  thing  was  that  those  large, 
fat  policemen  resented  anything  like  fresh  air.  The  old  family 
air  of  the  court  was  carefully  kept.  The  windows  were  rarely 
opened ;  this  was  to  prevent  the  intrusion  of  oxygen  or  the  escape 
of  the  ancient  "court  atmosphere." 

The  places  where  the  prisoners  are  brought  before  their  cases 
are  called  are  detention  rooms  .or  pens.  In  those  days  they  were 
pens  indeed.  The  police  were  also  in  charge  of  those;  and  some 
of  the  policemen  made  very  profitable  use  of  them.  If  an  enter- 
prising policeman  had  fifty  prisoners  in  the  morning  in  pens,  and  if 
he  sized  up  just  what  each  one  had,  from  the  amount  of  actual 
cash  to  a  diamond  ring,  and  if  there  was  a  friendly  lawyer  out- 
side to  whom  he  could  direct  the  clients,  it  is  safe  to  assume  there 
would  be  a  division  afterwards  of  the  profits.  That  was  a  source 
of  great  revenue  to  some  people. 

These  pens  were  filled  by  letting  down  the  police  net  into  the 
deep  waters  of  the  underworld  and  bringing  up  its  strange  catches. 
The  police  nets  are  put  down  just  like  other  nets  to  catch  fish,  and 
of  course  they  bring  up  all  kinds.  Among  the  ordinary  drunks 
and  disorderlies  or  more  serious  offenders  there  might  be  a  well- 
dressed  person,  a  woman  or  a  man  who  had  never  been  in  such  a 


200  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

place  before.  A  shrewd  attendant  would  at  once  see  the  possibili- 
ties. 

And  so  with  the  complaint  room.  Anybody  could  go  in  and 
out  there.  Also  in  the  complaint  room  there  was  another  great 
public  convenience,  which  the  reform  injured  very  much.  Sheaves 
of  summonses  were  kept  there  in  a  loose  way  and  anyone  could 
get  a  bunch  of  summonses.  An  instalment-house  furniture  collec- 
tor would  take  a  bunch  of  those  and  serve  them  on  the  widow  who 
had  failed  to  pay  the  last  fifty  cents  on  the  bedstead,  and  say  that 
she  would  be  locked  up  in  Sing  Sing  if  she  didn't  pay,  and,  of 
course,  would  excite  her  to  pawn  her  wedding  ring  or  probably  the 
only  dress  she  had  or  some  little  household  utensil  in  order  to  get 
the  money.  No  account  was  kept  of  those  summonses,  because 
they  were  loose.  I  am  glad  to  tell  you  that  no  such  things  could 
occur  to-day.  The  summonses  are  in  book  form  and  properly 
numbered.  Each  one  has  its  own  distinct  number  and  the  stub 
of  the  book  must  show  what  has  become  of  the  writ.  In  that  and 
other  ways  we  have  put  a  stop  to  that  and  other  infamous  practises. 

Prior  to  1910,  when  the  public  had  become  aroused  to  these 
conditions  and  when  the  police  moreover  had  begun  to  tell  the 
citizens  that  the  reason  they  were  not  more  efficient  in  putting 
down  crime  was  because  they  were  not  getting  the  support  of  the 
judges,  certain  disinterested  citizens  arose  and  demanded  that 
these  courts  be  reformed.  Prominent  among  those  were  Mr. 
Bronson  Winthrop,  Mr.  Philip  McCook,  Mr.  Otto  Bannard,  Mr. 
Lawrence  Veiller  and  a  number  of  the  very  best  citizens  of  New 
York,  men  of  whom  any  community  ought  to  be  proud.  These 
men  went  to  Albany  and  insisted  that  something  be  done.  There- 
upon a  joint  resolution  was  passed  appointing  a  commission 
known  afterwards  as  the  Page  commission,  because  Senator  Page, 
now  a  justice  of  the  supreme  court,  was  the  head  of  it.  Mr. 
Julius  Mayer,  now  judge  of  one  of  the  United  States  courts,  was 
counsel.  They  took  a  great  deal  of  testimony,  filling  several 
volumes,  as  to  the  actual  conditions  in  the  magistrates'  courts, 
as  to  what  abuses  existed  and  what  were  the  remedies.  The  law 
of  1910  was  based  on  their  report.  The  law  provided,  among 
other  things,  for  the  present  office  of  chief  city  magistrate.  Up 
to  that  time,  the  board  of  magistrates  elected  their  own  president, 


COURTS  201 

and  they  met  in  a  desultory  sort  of  way.  They  had  no  centralized 
location,  and  after  the  meeting  of  the  board  had  adjourned  the 
officers  went  back  into  the  courts.  There  was  no  real  settled 
headquarters.  Under  the  present  law  of  1910,  the  administrative 
and  executive  features  of  the  court  are  centralized  in  the  office  of 
the  chief  city  magistrate.  From  there  all  the  supplies  go  out  to 
the  courts;  all  the  physical  conditions  are  looked  after;  the  em- 
ployes are  held  to  strict  accountability ;  all  public  complaints  are 
investigated ;  close  touch  is  kept  with  all  departments  of  the  city 
government;  all  statistics  are  received  daily:  all  reports  are  made; 
a  large  correspondence  is  conducted ;  nearly  all  pistol  permits  are 
issued.  From  there  the  working  in  detail  of  all  the  courts  is 
carefully  watched  day  by  day.  From  there  certain  assignments 
are  made  to  the  night  court  for  women  and  the  domestic  relations 
court.  The  power  and  influence  of  the  office  are  great.  It  is  a 
positive  advantage  to  the  magistrates  who  are  practically  freed 
from  all  business  but  the  exercise  of  their  judicial  functions. 

When  this  centralized  system  was  first  proposed  in  the  bill, 
many  otherwise  excellent  magistrates  were  opposed  to  it.  They 
were  not  to  blame  for  the  existing  conditions.  It  was  as  hopeless 
as  making  bricks  without  straws,  and  they  had  become  used  to  the 
conditions  under  which  they  lived  and  hopeless  as  to  any  reforma- 
tory measures  ever  being  passed  to  better  things.  No  one  magis- 
trate could  have  done  anything  to  stem  the  tide  that  ran  through 
these  tribunals,  and  the  magistrates,  therefore,  in  a  sort  of  sodden 
despair,  had  settled  down  to  accept  things  as  they  were.  People 
active  in  politics  showed  no  interest  whatever  in  removing  these 
courts  from  the  stagnant  and  deadly  condition  into  which  they  had 
fallen.  The  office  of  chief  city  magistrate  principally  excited 
apprehension.  Were  the  magistrates  to  have  a  judicial  boss  ?  Was 
there  to  be  someone  installed  with  the  mighty  title  of  chief  city 
magistrate  who  would  invade  their  rights  and  prerogatives,  reverse 
them,  and  hold  them  up  to  public  scorn  ?  None  of  these  dreadful 
things  happened.  The  present  system  works  smoothly  and 
effectively.  The  Page  law  properly  demanded  that  the  police 
should  be  taken  out  of  the  court,  and  that  in  their  place  civilian 
employes  coming  from  the  civil  service  commission  on  certified 
lists  should  be  selected.  There  were  many  well-meaning  and 


202  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK    CITY 

honest  magistrates  who  thought  this  would  be  a  terrible  innova- 
tion. They  believed  that  no  one  but  a  policeman  could  preserve 
order  in  a  magistrate's  court.  One  magistrate  advised  me  that 
on  the  first  day  of  October,  1910,  I  should  call  upon  the  citizens' 
posse  comitatus  to  preserve  order  when  the  police  vacated.  We 
have  now  for  five  years  had  civilian  instead  of  police  attendants, 
and  there  is  no  one  connected  with  these  courts  who  would  dare 
say  that  they  are  not  a  vast  improvement  upon  the  police.  They 
are  particularly  amenable  to  the  chief  city  magistrate  for  discipline. 
If  any  one  of  you  will  tell  me  that  one  of  them  has  been  guilty 
of  the  slightest  discourtesy,  I  will  take  the  case  up  at  once.  The 
infrequency  of  complaints  from  citizens  demonstrates  the  wisdom 
of  the  change  from  police  to  civilians. 

Physical  changes  were  demanded,  but  as  is  usual  with  govern- 
ment, no  money  was  provided.  The  bridges  were  taken  out;  the 
sacred  bridge  was  removed.  The  wire  netting  which  obscured  the 
vision  of  the  citizen  and  gave  that  family  air  to  the  proceedings 
was  taken  down.  It  had  been  put  up  in  the  first  place,  I  was  told, 
to  keep  burglars  from  walking  down  the  center  aisle  and  escaping. 
No  burglar  has  as  yet  walked  down  the  center  aisle.  The  witness 
chair  was  removed  to  a  respectable  distance  from  the  magistrate 
so  that  the  witness  might  be  compelled  to  speak  up  and  possibly 
a  citizen  interested  in  the  proceedings  might  hear  somewhat  of  the 
evidence.  The  detention  pens  were  reserved  exclusively  for  the 
purposes  for  which  they  were  intended,  no  one  being  allowed  to  go 
near  them  except  the  officers  in  charge.  No  one  was  allowed  to 
approach  any  person  in  the  courtroom  without  being  apprehended 
and  brought  before  the  magistrate,  so  that  to-day  you  can  go  into 
any  of  these  courtrooms  and  be  treated  with  as  much  courtesy  as 
if  you  were  in  the  Supreme  Court  in  Washington.  The  magistrates 
had  resolved  some  time  before  that  that  they  should  wear  gowns. 
Later,  a  custom  was  established  of  having  the  people  rise  as  they 
do  in  the  higher  courts  when  the  magistrate  ascends  the  bench;, 
all  this  has  proved  good. 

These  courts  are  the  conservators  of  the  public  peace,  the 
correctors  of  criminals  and  delinquents,  and  in  my  judgment  the 
greatest  educational  institutions  in  the  United  States.  New  York 
has  been  called  the  melting  pot  of  the  nation,  and  into  these  courts, 


COURTS  203 

goes  a  steady  stream  of  people  who  do  not  speak  our  language,  do 
not  know  our  laws  and  are  alien  to  our  traditions.  If  the  immigrant 
who  came  from  southeast  Europe  yesterday  and  landed  on  our 
shores  goes  into  these  courts  on  the  morrow,  he  then  gets  his  first 
impression  of  American  government,  and  it  ought  to  be  of  the 
best.  Many  of  these  people  come  to  this  country  bitterly  resentful 
of  governmental  interference,  hating  the  laws  under  which  they 
lived  and  suspicious  of  all  officers  who  are  interested  in  its  execu- 
tion. If  such  a  man  is  treated  with  courtesy,  kindness  and  sub- 
stantial justice,  he  has  respect  for  the  new  country  to  which  he  has 
come.  You  have  converted  him  at  the  start  into  the  makings  of 
a  good  American  citizen.  You  have  touched  his  heart  by  a  change 
in  the  manner  of  treatment  from  that  to  which  he  was  accustomed 
in  his  home.  But  if  he  runs  across  discourtesy  and  injustice,  if  the 
incidents  and  the  atmosphere  of  the  place  suggest  something  worse, 
he  believes  your  government  no  better  than  that  which  he  has 
left,  and  his  hatred  of  the  law  is  intensified.  After  a  first  proba- 
tionary period,  these  people  go  from  New  York  to  all  other  parts 
of  the  United  States.  Your  magistrates'  courts  are  therefore 
educational  institutions  for  vast  numbers  of  those  who  are  to  be 
the  future  citizens  of  this  country  and  decide  its  fate  at  the  ballot 
box.  It  is  for  that  reason  that  I  have  always  resented  the  sordid 
surroundings  of  the  courtrooms.  Whatever  faults  government 
may  have  had  in  the  old  world,  it  was  been  careful  to  house  the 
judiciary  respectably  and  with  dignity.  The  ignorant  immigrant 
who  is  taken  down  to  our  Third  Court  on  Second  avenue,  with 
its  sordid  vulgarity,  its  necessary  dirt,  its  unventilated  pen,  and 
its  cheap  and  tawdry  ornamentation,  is  not  impressed  with  the 
courtroom  nor  the  judges  as  he  should  be,  simply  because  of  the 
physical  surroundings.  I  have  therefore  most  earnestly  labored 
in  my  present  office  to  the  end  that  the  city  should  properly  house 
these  exceedingly  important  courts. 

The  magistrate  holds  a  clinic  every  day  and  night  in  the  year. 
Here  is  where  we  give  first  aid  to  the  injured,  as  I  intimated  a 
moment  ago.  We  bind  up  the  fresh  wounds  and  pass  the  patients 
along  if  necessary  to  the  higher  operators  in  the  courts  above.  We 
are  the  strongest  force  for  law  and  order  in  New  York,  not  excepting 
the  police,  because  the  police  cannot  be  efficient  unless  there  is 


204  THE    GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

hearty,   earnest,    friendly    co-operation    between  them  and    the 
magistrates. 

When  I  was  police  commissioner  (for  my  sins) ,  there  was  a  lack 
of  harmony  and  almost  an  atmosphere  of  animosity  between  the 
magistrate  and  the  policeman.  I  have  lived  to  see  wondrous 
changes  in  my  time.  The  other  day,  every  magistrate  in  this 
division  signed  a  letter  to  the  present  police  commissioner  declaring 
that  police  conditions  in  New  York  are  excellent  and  that  he  is  the 
best  of  police  commissioners.  When  I  was  police  commissioner, 
what  some  of  the  judges  and  magistrates  said  about  me  almost 
equaled  what  I  thought  about  them.  If  I  had  ever  received  such 
a  thing  as  my  good  friend,  Mr.  Woods,  got  the  other  day,  I  would 
have  known  that  the  world  is  a  much  better  place  than  Mr.  Sunday 
says  it  is.  Under  the  present  system  we  have  established  a 
harmonious  and  earnest  co-operation  between  the  police  and  the 
magistrates. 

The  custom  on  the  part  of  a  few  magistrates  in  the  bad  old 
times  was  to  speak  disparagingly  of  the  policeman.  I  was  never 
so  much  impressed  with  the  difference  between  the  relationship  of 
police  and  magistrates  in  New  York  and  in  London  as  during  my 
visit  a  few  years  ago  to  the  latter  city  and  the  Bow  Street  Court 
there.  In  the  first  place,  the  officer  of  the  Bow  Street  Court 
stands  about  twenty  or  thirty  feet  back  from  the  magistrate  and 
talks  in  a  loud  tone  of  voice.  Our  fellows  used  to  whisper.  In 
Bow  Street:  "Your  Worship,  about  half-past  eight  last  night,  I 
saw  the  defendant  standing  in  front  of  the  Gaiety  Theater  and  I 
asked  him  to  move  on.  In  about  half  an  hour  he  was  still  standing 
there  and  I  said  to  him  again  he  must  move  on,  and  he  did  not."- 
"Do  you  think  five  shillings  would  be  sufficient?" — "Oh,  yes, 
Your  Worship,  I  think  five  shillings  would  be  enough."-  -"Five 
shillings." — And  he  passes  on.  In  the  old  days  examples  quite 
contrary  to  this  could  be  readily  produced  here  in  New  York,  but 
why  bring  up  painful  memories  of  too  many  good  magistrates  ? 

Now  we  have  fallen  on  happier  and  better  days.  We  have 
brought  these  courts  up  to  a  great  deal  higher  plane  than  they 
ever  occupied  before.  The  office  of  magistrate  has  been  exalted 
as  it  should  be  to  a  very  responsible  one;  for  there  is  no  public 
officer  Jn  New  York  who  can  do  more  good  or  more  evil  in  one  day 


COURTS  205 

than  a  city  magistrate.  If  he  is  a  man  of  heart  and  good  conscience, 
he  will  feel  appealed  to  every  hour  that  he  sits  on  the  bench.  The 
worthy  poor  person  who  has  no  friends  and  no  influence  to  succor 
him  in  his  distress, — he  must  do  justice  by  him.  He  must  execute 
the  impartial  administration  of  the  law  as  between  poor  and  rich 
so  that  all  people  shall  stand  equal  before  him.  He  must  put  the 
heavy  hand  of  the  law  upon  the  professional  criminal  and  the 
designedly  bad  man  or  woman  trespassing  on  the  rights  of  the 
community  and  endangering  its  safety.  To  be  the  sword  of 
justice  on  the  one  side  and  the  helping  hand  of  mercy  and  benevo- 
lence on  the  other  is  the  office  of  a  true  magistrate.  There  is  no 
place  in  or  out  of  New  York  where  such  immense  opportunities 
are  afforded  of  studying  human  nature  and  actual  communal 
conditions  as  in  a  magistrate's  court.  There  ought  to  be  a  law 
compelling  all  legislators  and  congressmen  to  serve  a  probationary 
period  in  one  of  our  magistrates'  courts  in  order  that  they  might 
understand  the  actual  conditions  of  life  for  a  great  majority  of  our 
people.  We  have  now  advanced  these  courts  physically  and 
morally.  We  have  brought  into  its  true  light  the  responsibility 
of  the  magistrate. 

But  latterly  in  the  working  of  the  system  we  have  become  aware 
that  there  is  a  lack  of -symmetry  and  centralization  in  the  courts  of 
criminal  first  instance.  We  have  been  re-trying  the  same  cases. 
The  boy  who  stole  a  pigeon,  the  woman  who  picked  up  a  hairpin 
in  a  department  store,  the  man  who  purloined  a  bottle  of  milk, 
the  angry  man  who  resented  being  called  a  liar  and  hit  the  other 
fellow  on  the  nose,  even  the  angry  cook  who  had  thrown  a  skillet 
at  the  mistress,  and  a  big  host  who  violated  city  ordinances,  were 
all  bundled  into  these  courts  and  after  one  examination  which 
amounted  to  a  full  trial  were  retried  in  the  court  of  special  sessions. 
I  am  glad  to  tell  you  that  to-day,  from  the  news  that  comes  from 
Albany,  there  has  been  given  to  the  magistrate  a  substantial 
enlargement  of  power.  As  the  law  stands  to-day,  if  we  follow  the 
construction  of  one  of  our  eminent  judges  we  cannot  try  the  woman 
who  throws  waste  paper  into  the  street.  In  the  sanitary  code, 
throwing  paper  in  the  streets,  spitting  on  the  sidewalks  and  smoking 
in  the  subway  are  designated  as  misdemeanors,  and  when  you  put 
the  sacred  name  of  misdemeanor  on  an  offense,  the  magistrate 


206  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW  YORK  CITY 

is  not  supposed  to  be  of  the  intellectual  caliber  to  try  it.  So  if  Mrs. 
Einstein  down  in  Hester  street  has  thrown  a  quantity  of  light  chaff 
into  the  street,  he  can  only  say  to  her:  "Mrs.  Einstein,  I  can  give 
you  an  examination  which  will  amount  to  a  trial,  and  if  I  hold  you, 
you  will  go  down  to  Center  street  and  be  tried  by  three  learned 
judges  for  this  heinous  offense."  Under  the  labor  law,  smoking 
a  cigarette  in  a  factory  is  considered  dangerous.  Where  the 
offender  in  such  a  case  is  apprehended,  we  cannot  even  take  the 
plea  of  guilty.  I  am  glad  to  tell  you  that  we  have  achieved  for 
the  people  of  New  York  a  remarkable  victory  in  the  legislature, 
and  if  the  measure  is  approved  by  the  mayor  and  governor  these 
powers  will  have  been  given  to  the  magistrate. 

The  idea  in  the  bill  passed  is  that  the  whole  thirty-eight  magis- 
trates in  Greater  New  York  shall  be  made  into  one  board  instead 
of  two  boards,  and  that  one  chief  magistrate  shall  preside  over  that 
board.  I  look  forward  to  the  time  when  the  magistrates'  courts 
in  New  York  will  be  models  for  all  the  rest  of  this  country.  I  look 
forward  to  the  time  when  these  courts,  centralized  and  systematized 
in  their  machinery  and  their  administrative  work  as  well  as  in 
their  judicial  functions,  will  give  to  the  people  of  New  York  the 
best  administration  of  the  criminal  law  that  can  be  had.  I  rejoice 
now  that  in  the  co-operation  of  the  police  and  the  magistrate,  in 
the  enlightenment  of  public  opinion,  in  the  good  will  of  such  people 
as  are  here  to-day,  the  magistrates  must  all  be  encouraged  to  go 
forward  still  further  in  the  advancement  of  these  most  important 
courts.  Constant  vigilance,  persistent  progress,  continuous 
betterment,  with  an  enlightened  public  opinion  working  with  us — 
and  these  courts  can  be  made  models  for  doing  substantial  and 
exact  justice,  and  making  for  peace,  order,  a  higher  degree  of 
communal  decency,  and  personal  and  public  safety. 


DISCUSSION  OF  THE  ADMINISTRATIVE  ORGANI- 
ZATION OF  THE  COURTS 

WILLIAM  L.  RANSOM,  Justice  of  the  City  Court: 

As  Judge  McAdoo  has  pointed  out,  there  has  been  a  great  improve- 
ment in  the  administration  of  the  criminal  courts  of  this  city.  I  am  only 
sorry  that  a  similar  improvement  has  not  yet  come  about  in  the  civil 
courts.  Ex-President  Taft  said  a  few  years  ago  that  of  all  subjects  before 
the  American  people,  the  most  important,  in  his  judgment,  was  the 
improvement  of  the  administration  of  justice.  A  year  ago,  the  National 
Economic  League,  by  referendum  vote  of  its  members,  declared  that 
subject  the  most  important  for  the  active  work  of  that  league.  I  am 
glad  that  there  has  been  included  within  the  program  of  this  series  of 
conferences  a  reference  to  the  administrative  organization  of  the  courts, 
because  it  is  not  generally  recognized  that  the  city  as  such  has  any  partic- 
ular responsibility  for  it.  There  is  before  the  people  of  this  state  and 
before  the  constitutional  convention  no  subject  more  important,  in  my 
judgment,  than  an  adequate  reorganization  of  the  administrative  side  of 
the  work  of  our  courts,  civil  and  criminal,  to  bring  about  some  relief 
from  the  conditions  to  which  I  shall  briefly  refer. 

Comptroller  Prendergast  gave  out  the  other  day  an  interesting  state- 
ment which  rather  visualizes  and  makes  concrete  the  thing  I  have  in 
mind.  Out  of  every  $100  which  is  raised  within  the  city  of  New  York 
by  taxation,  the  comptroller  pointed  out,  our  department  of  health, 
administered  by  Dr.  Goldwater,  which  does  such  a  multitude  of  splendid 
things,  costs  only  $1.79.  The  tenement  house  department,  about  which 
the  city  is  so  much  stirred  at  present  on  account  of  the  alleged  great 
expensiveness  of  the  work  which  it  is  doing,  costs  only  $0.39.  For  pub- 
lic recreation,  parks,  parkways,  drives  and  museums,  the  city  spends 
only  $1.75.  Yet  the  courts  of  New  York,  the  administration  of  civil 
and  criminal  justice  within  the  city,  costs  more  than  $5  out  of  every 
$100  raised  by  taxation. 

That  is  not  due  primarily  to  the  salaries  of  judges.  In  the  boroughs 
of  Manhattan  and  The  Bronx  only  22%  of  the  total  cost  of  the  supreme 
court  to  the  taxpayers  represents  the  salaries  of  the  judges  of  that  court. 
The  salaries  of  the  justices  are  not  quite  $1,000,000;  while  the  salaries 
of  the  clerical  force  alone  are  nearly  $1,500,000,  in  addition  to  a  salary 
list  of  nearly  $700,000  for  court  attendants.  On  the  civil  side  of  the 
supreme  court  in  the  boroughs  of  Manhattan  and  The  Bronx,  the 

(207) 


208  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

salaries  of  the  judges  -are  $660,000  per  year;  the  salaries  of  their  clerks 
are  $774,000;  the  salaries  of  their  stenographers  are  above  $200,000; 
and  the  salaries  of  their  attendants  are  nearly  $700,000.  The  situation 
in  the  supreme  court  is  typical  of  that  in  other  courts.  There  has  been 
built  up  a  tremendous,  unorganized,  irresponsible  body  of  clerks  and 
attendants,  the  volume  of  whose  annual  salaries  substantially  exceeds 
the  salaries  of  the  judges  themselves,  adequate  as  these  are.  Each  court 
has  its  own  staff  of  clerks  and  its  own  body  of  attendants,  and  expendi- 
ture for  their  salaries,  although  placed  in  the  budget  and  raised  by 
public  taxation,  is  nevertheless  an  expenditure  substantially  without 
public  control  except  such  indirect  control  as  is  exercised  in  some 
instances  by  the  judges  themselves. 

In  other  cities  the  problem  of  city  courts  has  been  dealt  with  in  direct 
and  constructive  ways.  Instead  of  this  great  duplication  of  clerical 
force  of  attendants  and  stenographers,  instead  of  this  conflict  of  juris- 
diction, to  only  one  phase  of  which  Judge  McAdoo  has  directed  atten- 
tion, and  which  is  even  worse  in  the  civil  courts  than  in  the  criminal, 
there  has  been  brought  into  being  a  centralized  court,  which  represents 
all  the  city  and  has  jurisdiction  to  deal  with  substantially  all  the  classes 
of  controversy,  civil  and  criminal,  which  may  be  called  municipal  in 
their  nature.  Such  a  court  as  has  been  brought  into  being  in  Chicago 
and  other  cities  deserves  the  most  careful  consideration  of  the  constitu- 
tional convention,  to  the  end  that  the  condition  to  which  I  have  briefly 
drawn  attention  may  be  dealt  with  and  ended. 


GEORGE  W.  ALGER,  Esq.: 

The  subject  so  interestingly  discussed  by  these  two  learned  judges  is 
one  of  the  most  pressing  judicial  questions  now  before  the  American 
people.  The  administrative  organization  of  the  courts  is  one  of  the  new 
subjects.  We  have  been  effecting  various  law  reforms  for  ten  or  fifteen 
years.  We  have  a  mania  in  this  country  for  patchwork  reform  not  taking 
things  fundamentally  but  taking  them  piece-meal,  consequently  we  have 
a  sort  of  Joseph's  coat  of  justice  of  many  colors,  which  represents  various 
attempts  at  changing  procedure,  at  eliminating  technicalities  in  criminal 
cases,  at  transferring  jurisdiction  from  one  court  to  another,  and  at  mak- 
ing somewhat  simpler  the  ordinary  machinery  by  which  justice  is  to  be 
obtained  in  the  courts.  But  the  two  fundamental  questions  which  sooner 
or  later  must  be  taken  up  before  we  have  anything  like  efficient  justice 
in  America  are:  first,  the  organization  of  the  courts  themselves  on  a 


COURTS  209 

scientific  basis;  and  second,  a  more  intelligent  method  for  the  selection 
of  judges.  It  is  only  the  first  of  these  subjects  with  which  I  have  to  deal. 

I  have  been  much  interested,  as  you  all  have,  in  hearing  Judge  McAdoo. 
The  court  which  he  represents  is  one  of  the  courts  of  promise  in  this 
country.  Everything  which  he  has  told  you  about  the  old  conditions 
in  that  court  I  certainly  can  vouch  for  myself,  and  I  doubt  not  many 
others  of  you  have  been  familiar  with  the  old  police'court.  In  five  years 
it  has  been  transformed.  What  has  brought  about  the  change?  What 
has  made  a  real  court  out  of  what  was  one  of  the  most  despised  forms 
of  magistracy  in  the  country?  The  reorganization  of  that  court  on  an 
intelligent  basis;  the  creation  of  a  chief  magistrate  who  has  been  made 
responsible  for  the  conditions  of  its  work,  for  its  organization  and 
administrative  management,  with  a  chief  clerk  who  has  responsibility 
for  the  handling  of  the  clerical  force  of  the  court  throughout  the  city; 
and  the  placing  of  that  combined  responsibility  in  the  hands  of  a  responsi- 
ble man  who  knows  his  job, — this  has  transformed  an  exceedingly  bad 
court  into  one  of  the  best  of  its  kind  in  the  United  States.  There  is  no 
court  in  New  York  for  which  I  have  as  much  respect  as  I  have  for  the 
court  over  which  Judge  McAdoo  presides.  You  can't  go  into  the  present 
magistrates'  court  without  feeling  that  you  are  in  the  presence  of  a 
tribunal  which  has  unity  and  dignity,  and  that  its  magistrates  are  keenly 
alive  to  a  sense  of  duty.  That  is  the  result  not  merely  of  having  a  good 
chief  justice  to  whom  we  can  go  if  we  don't  like  the  way  his  court  is  run 
and  who  will  be  glad  to  see  us;  it  is  due  not  only  to  that,  but  to  the 
correct  organization  of  the  court.  This  is  the  only  really  organized 
court  in  the  state  of  New  York,  and  it  shows  what  can  be  done  by  proper 
organization. 

We  have  not  developed  efficient  organization  in  our  courts  largely 
because  we  have  overdeveloped  in  America  the  slightly  out-of-date 
virtue  of  judicial  independence.  It  was  natural  for  us  to  do  it  at  the 
time  our  country  severed  its  relations  with  England.  At  that  time 
our  judges  were  subservient  to  the  crown.  All  our  colonies  had  unpleas- 
ant memories  of  colonial  judges  who  received  their  salaries  from  England 
and  who  used  their  office  to  abuse  their  fellow-citizens  in  this  country, 
and  accordingly  we  determined  at  all  hazards  to  have  independent 
judges.  We  have  overdeveloped  the  notion  of  independence  just  as  the 
French  have  overdeveloped  the  idea  of  system. 

Proceeding  along  diverse  lines  both  have  produced  irresponsibility. 
The  French  have  overorganized  their  courts  so  that  the  judge,  feeling 
himself  a  mere  cog  in  a  judicial  machine,  shifts  his  responsibility  on  to 
the  state  or  the  government  of  which  he  feels  himself  a  small  and  irre- 


210  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

sponsible  part.  Those  of  you  who  will  read  the  recent  book  of  Faguet  on 
The  Dread  of  Responsibility  will  get  a  clear  picture  of  the  overdevelop- 
ment of  organization,  just  as  one  would,  if  he  made  a  study  of  the  lack 
of  judicial  organization  in  our  country,  get  a  clear  picture  of  irresponsi- 
bility created  by  over-individualistic,  haphazard  and  chaotic  organization 
in  our  courts. 

The  current  conception  of  a  judge  is  that  he  should  be  alone  with 
God,  that  he  should  be  free  from  all  possible  notions  of  responsibility 
to  anybody  but  his  Maker.  It  imposes  too  heavy  a  burden  upon  his 
creator.  In  our  supreme  court,  for  example,  you  have  a  series  of  twenty- 
odd  judges,  each  of  them  practically  in  an  air-tight  compartment 
operating  an  individual  court  to  suit  himself.  There  is  no  chief  magis- 
trate. There  is  no  one  to  whom  a  judge  is  practically  responsible.  If 
he  does  not  handle  his  calendar  in  an  intelligent  way,  if  he  wastes  the 
time  of  thirty  lawyers  for  three  weeks  hanging  around  answering 
calendars  when  there  is  prospect  of  their  cases  being  reached,  there 
is  nowhere  to  go.  If  he  wastes  the  time  of  countless  jurors  by  letting 
them  hang  around  the  court  where  there  is  no  real  use  for  them,  there 
is  nowhere  to  go.  He  has  no  responsibility  except  to  another  court  (or 
rather  it  is  theoretically  a  separate  branch  of  his  own  court),  the  appel- 
late division  of  the  supreme  court,  located  up  town  in  an  entirely  different 
section  of  New  York,  which  makes  the  rules  of  the  supreme  court  down 
below,  which  makes  the  assignment  of  the  judges  to  the  places  where  they 
shall  hold  court  down  below  and  which  regulates  from  afar  the  operation 
of  the  supreme  court.  Why  should  you  not  have  a  wasteful  system 
when  you  have  no  system  at  all? 

Consider  the  city  courts  in  which  Judge  Ransom  is  one  of  the  most 
efficient  and  hard-working  judges.  You  have  ten  judges  who  do  not 
necessarily  have  to  know  one  another.  They  are  in  separate  compart- 
ments, each  running  his  court  to  suit  himself.  Some  of  them  really  come 
promptly  when  the  time  for  court  opens;  some  of  them  come  half  or 
three-quarters  of  an  hour  late;  but  there  is  no  efficient,  responsible 
organization  at  all. 

The  attempt  at  the  recall  of  judges  which  passed  over  the  United 
States  in  the  last  few  years  had  as  its  basis,  I  have  always  felt,  that 
feeling  of  indignation  at  the  lack  of  effective  responsibility  on  the  part 
of  the  bench  to  an  authority  within  itself;  and  because  there  was  no 
inner  responsibility,  such  as  exists  in  the  magistrates'  courts,  no  responsi- 
bility of  the  judge  to  his  own  judicial  organization,  the  people  thought, 
"Let's  make  him  respoisible  somehow;  let's  have  at  least  a  clumsy 
external  method  of  creating  responsibility."  Doubtless  it  was  a  failure, 


COURTS  211 

but  it  was  a  groping  for  an  idea.  We  need  some  constructive  organiza- 
tion of  our  courts  for  many  reasons.  We  need  it  beause  none  of  us  does 
his  best  work  when  he  feels  that  he  is  under  no  responsibility  to  anyone, 
that  his  work  is  not  checked  up  to  see  whether  it  is  good,  bad  or  indif- 
ferent. It  is  only  within  recent  years  that  any  one  could  find  out  what 
the  record  of  any  supreme  court -judge  was,  whether  his  decisions  had 
been  reversed  in  half  or  three-quarters  of  his  cases  when  they  went  up  on 
appeal  or  whether  he  had  performed  his  duties  intelligently;  and  I  don't 
believe  to-day  that  you  can  find  out  as  to  the  inferior  courts  what  the 
judge's  record  is;  there  is  no  means  of  knowing.  We  have  simply  given 
them  that  notion  of  personal  independence  without  the  notion  of  personal 
responsibility.  The  principle  of  personal  responsibility  is  the  idea  which 
is  back  of  the  organization  of  the  courts. 

Judge  McAdoo  has  told  you  about  the  organization  of  his  court  and 
the  effect  of  this  new  law  which  is  likely  to  add  greatly  to  its  usefulness 
and  importance.  At  this  same  session  of  the  legislature,  another  bill 
was  passed  to  reorganize  the  civil  court  which  corresponds  in  a  way  to 
Judge  McAdoo's  criminal  court.  By  it  the  lowest  of  our  civil  courts,  the 
municipal  court,  has  been  theoretically  reorganized,  but  the  organization 
did  not  proceed  upon  an  intelligent  plan  of  coordinating  into  a  centralized 
system  this  municipal  court,  which  has  forty-six  judges  spread  into 
twenty-four  districts  in  six  counties.  It  has  the  thing  which  Judge 
McAdoo's  court  escaped  from,  a  sort  of  board  of  judges  who  get  together 
and  elect  somebody  as  a  presiding  officer  who  can  do  what  the  board 
tells  him  he  may  do,  and  that  is  very  little.  There  is  no  centralized 
authority  at  all,  no  chief  justice,  no  chief  clerk,  no  means  of  control  over 
the  multitudinous  class  of  civil  or  generally  uncivil  employes  which  you 
find  in  all  these  courts  in  the  clerical  department;  the  clerks,  the 
attendants  and  the  interpreters.  The  clerk  in  a  municipal  court  if  he 
misbehaves,  can  be  removed  by  the  judges  who  are  elected  in  the  district 
in  which  that  clerk's  office  is  located,  but  the  law  also  says  that  no  judge 
shall  stay  for  two  months  in  the  same  district,  so  these  jumping  judges 
who  go  from  one  part  of  the  city  to  another  are  supposed  to  supervise  as 
they  go  along  the  general  administration  of  the  miscellaneous  courts 
through  which  they  pass.  How  much  of  an  administrative  organization 
can  you  expect  from  a  court  which  is  chaos  personified  in  this  fashion? 
Obviously  none. 

Certain  features  of  that  new  municipal  court  act  are  doubtless  good, 
but  they  are  the  old-line  features.  There  are  changes  in  jurisdiction, 
changes  in  procedure  and  putting  other  patches  on  various  parts  of  the 
court  organization  which  appealed  to  lawyers,  but  which  do  not  effect 


212  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK   CITY 

anything  substantial.  You  can't  patch  courts  together.  They  have  got 
to  be  reorganized.  We  began  without  any  organization;  we  have  gone 
for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  without  anything  that  remotely  resem- 
bles organization,  and  until  the  time  comes  when  a  sufficient  amount 
of  public  opinion  comes  from  outside — I  am  talking  now  not  about  the 
lawyer  but  about  the  layman — until  such  time  as  the  intelligent  and 
efficient  business  man  in  this  city  and  state  realizes  that  it  is  something 
in  which  he  is  interested  we  shall  not  make  any  very  serious  changes  in 
the  courts. 

Eight  million  eight  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  dollars  is  what  the 
courts  cost  in  this  city  last  year — a  pretty  fairly  heavy  bill.  If  that 
money  has  been  wasted  to  a  large  extent,  if  it  has  gone  to  pay  a  great 
mass  of  absolutely  unnecessary  salaries  which  the  legislature  has  put  into 
the  so-called  judiciary  act,  if  this  has  been  done  simply  to  furnish  addi- 
tional and  wasteful  jobs,  it  is  a  matter  which  should  interest  not  merely 
the  legal  profession  but  every  taxpayer  and  every  citizen  of  New  York. 
Fundamentally,  we  must  have  responsibility;  as  much  judicial  inde- 
pendence as  is  consistent  with  judicial  responsibility,  and  judicial 
responsibility  created  by  an  organization  to  which  the  judge  is  amenable 
and  which  is  capable  of  criticizing  his  work  from  within  instead  of  leaving 
it  to  the  newspapers  outside.  You  never  can  expect  to  get  any  blunder- 
buss in  the  form  of  a  recall  or  in  the  form  of  an  impeachment  which  is 
likely  to  do  the  judiciary  much  good.  The  criticism  has  to  be  a  self- 
criticism  from  within,  as  in  the  municipal  court  of  Chicago,  where  the 
chief  justice  has  some  measure  of  actual  control  over  the  associate  judges. 
He  can  tranfer  the  judges  where  he  pleases.  If  he  finds  a  man  is  not  up 
to  his  job  and  is  not  performing  his  duty  properly,  he  can  put  him  in  some 
very  unimportant  portion  of  the  machinery  of  things,  which  is  an  effective 
discipline.  He  can  keep  those  judges  "on  their  toes"  for  efficiency. 
Not  so  in  New  York.  The  so--called  presiding  justice  of  the  municipal 
court,  under  this  new  law  which  is  supposed  to  represent  a  great  advance, 
cannot  even  transfer  a  judge  from  one  borough  to  another,  from  a 
borough  where  he  is  not  working  to  a  borough  where  more  judges  are 
badly  wanted,  unless  the  judge  consents  to  being  transferred. 

The  municipal  court  of  Chicago  now  tries  annually  more  cases  and 
they  result  in  judgments  for  a  larger  sum  of  money  than  does  the  High 
Court  of  Justice  in  England.  That  court  was  less  than  ten  years  ago  a 
scandalous  court  composed  of  miscellaneous  justices  of  the  peace  who  did 
not  do  their  work  properly  or  honesty;  but  by  organization,  by  having 
a  good  chief  justice  at  the  head  of  it,  a  transformation  has  taken  place 
in  the  municipal  court  there  on  the  civil  side  comparable  with  that  which 


COURTS  213 

has  taken  place  on  the  criminal  side  under  Chief  Magistrate  McAdoo 
here  in  New  York.  This  administrative  idea,  this  organization  of  courts 
is  a  tremendously  important  thing.  It  is  new  and  we  ought  to  interest 
ourselves  in  it.  The  associations  like  the  American  Judicature  Society 
which  are  taking  it  up  ought  to  have  the  co-operation  not  only  of  lawyers 
but  of  laymen  as  well,  because  it  is  not  merely  a  law  question;  it  is  a 
question  of  business  organization  and  it  is  fundamentally  the  most 
effective  way  to  get  speedy  and  certain  justice. 


THE   CITY  CHARTER 

GEORGE   McANENY 

President  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen 

I  ASSUME  that  in  the  earlier  numbers  of  this  course  the  detail 
of  the  present  city  government  has  been  pretty  thoroughly  cov- 
ered .  You  have  been  told  about  the  operation  of  various  depart- 
ments and  their  correlation,  and  about  the  organization  of  the 
city's  finances.  You  are  still  to  hear  from  the  mayor  upon  the 
development  of  the  port  and  terminal  facilities  of  the  city. 
What  I  have  to  say,  therefore,  about  the  charter,  fundamental 
though  the  subject  be,  will  touch  but  lightly  upon  these  questions 
of  detail.  I  wish,  rather,  to  impress  you  with  the  fact  that  we 
have  indeed  reached  the  opportune  time  at  which  a  new  and 
up-to-date  instrument  of  government  for  the  whole  city  may  be 
framed  and  put  into  effect.  We  have  had  ill  luck  in  the  past  in 
bringing  anything  like  this  about.  When  the  various  munici- 
palities were  consolidated  into  Greater  New  York  in  1897,  the 
charter  then  drawn  did  little  more  than  put  together  the  old 
fragments  of  law  that  belonged  to  one  city  or  another,  making 
them  as  nearly  applicable  to  the  whole  as  possible.  The  com- 
mission to  which  Dr.  Butler  was  called  corrected  those  mistakes 
that  were  developed  during  the  earlier  years  of  actual  administra- 
tion under  the  Greater  New  York  charter,  and  in  1900  the  revision 
under  which  we  are  now  working  was  given  to  us  by  the  legis- 
lature. There  have  been  several  attempts  since  to  draw  a  charter 
that  would  not  merely  put  together  the  old  things  by  scissor  and 
gum-pot  work,  but  would  draw  a  new  and  broad  body  of  law 
to  serve,  as  it  ought  to  serve,  as  a  constitution  for  the  govern- 
ment of  our  six  millions  of  people,  giving  incidentally  to  the  city 
that  larger  measure  of  control  of  its  own  affairs  that  it  ought  to 
have,  simplifying  its  working  machinery  and  working  out  various 
improvements  of  detail  that  experience  has  suggested; 

In  1907,  I  think,  Governor  Hughes  appointed  a  commission 
upon  which  I  had  the  honor  to  serve,  a  commission  of  fifteen  men, 
and  we  prepared  what  seemed  to  us  an  excellent  plan,  We  sent 

(214) 


THE   CHARTER  215 

it  to  Albany,  and  there  it  died.  Then  came  two  successive  com- 
missions appointed  by  the  legislature  and  not  by  the  governor, 
and  made  up  in  part  of  gentlemen  from  up-state,  in  part  of  our 
own  citizens.  Both  charters  framed  in  this  manner  failed  in  turn. 
We  have  a  new  commission  now.  I  am  the  lineal  successor  of  Dr. 
Butler  in  what  he  would  have  been  in  serving  as  chairman  of  that 
commission;  but  this  time  the  initiative  has  been  taken  by  the 
city.  We  have  brought  together  a  body  of  our  own  officers,  eight 
of  them,  and  propose  to  associate  with  ourselves  seven  citizens, 
who  are  about  to  be  appointed,  to  frame  a  charter  offered  by  the 
city  to  its  own  people,  made  up  here  and  not  through  the  indirec- 
tion of  action  at  Albany  if  we  can  avoid  that.  We  have  delib- 
erately held  back  the  real  beginning  of  our  drafting  until  the 
constitutional  convention  should  begin  its  work,  so  that  we  may 
work  side  by  side  with  its  members  through  the  summer,  gather- 
ing as  we  go  along  a  notion  of  what  they  propose  to  do,  of  how 
much  power  they  propose  to  give  us  or  to  permit  the  people  to 
give  us,  and  shaping  our  plans  accordingly. 

In  the  convention,  there  will  be  no  other  question  so  lively,  so 
important,  perhaps  even  so  exciting,  as  this  one.  The  question 
of  home  rule  for  cities  has  never  been  in  a  livelier  state  and  there 
never  has  been  a  time  at  which  we  might  more  reasonably  hope 
for  concessions  from  the  state  that  would  be  of  great  and  lasting 
importance  to  us.  It  is  not  merely  the  case  of  New  York  city 
that  is  presented,  but  that  of  every  city  in  the  state,  for  we  are 
still  governed  far  too  much  from  Albany. 

When  the  constitution  of  twenty  years  ago  was  framed,  or 
before  that  time,  conditions  indeed  were  considerably  worse. 
We  ran  to  Albany  for  authority  to  spend  fifty  thousand  dollars 
upon  a  Brooklyn  turnpike,  for  instance.  We  ran  to  Albany  to 
change  the  provisions  of  law  with  relation  to  the  fixing  of 
salaries  -for  almost  every  grade  and  description  of  city  employes. 
We  were  in  turn  governed  from  Albany,  without  request,  in  many 
matters  that  bothered  us  a  good  deal.  But  the  convention  of  that 
year  appointed  a  select  committee  on  home  rule  for  cities.  That 
committee  procured  the  passage  of  important  amendments.  In 
consequence,  municipal  elections  are  now  held  at  a  separate  time 
from  the  ejections  for  state  and  national  officials.  The  mayor  of 


216  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

the  city  was  also  given  power  to  veto  a  bill  affecting  the  city, 
and  even  though  his  veto  may  be  overridden  by  the  same  vote 
that  passed  the  original  bill  in  the  legislature,  the  moral  effect  of 
such  an  objection  has,  of  course,  been  real  and  serviceable.  In 
various  other  respects  the  home-rule  powers  of  the  cities  were 
increased,  and  as  the  legislature  was  put  under  greater  curb 
as  to  the  manner  of  doing  its  own  work,  providing  more  oppor- 
tunity for  examination  of  bills,  and* requiring  printing  in  advance 
of  consideration,  the  city  has  had  a  much  better  chance  to  protect 
itself  than  it  had  before.  But  there  is  still  far  too  much  inter- 
ference. 

New  York  city  is,  of  course,  in  a  class  absolutely  by  itself. 
In  its  population  and  in  its  wealth  it  is  not  merely  a  city;  in  its 
relation  to  the  rest  of  the  country,  it  is  really  a  great  common- 
wealth, ranking  in  number  of  people  third,  I  think,  with  only 
Pennsylvania  and  Illinois  ahead  of  it ;  in  wealth  far  passing  any 
of  them.  Our  problems  are  peculiar  to  a  city  of  this  sort.  We 
share  but  few  problems  with  the  smaller  cities  of  the  state.  We 
are  clearly  entitled  to  an  unusual  degree  of  home  rule.  It  seems 
absurd  that  in  affairs  affecting  so  great  an  aggregation  of  people, 
affecting  the  annual  spending  of  so  many  millions  of  dollars, 
decisions  should  be  made  by  a  legislature  sitting  a  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  away  in  which,  moreover,  we  have  actually 
a  minority  representation.  We  have  55%  of  the  people  of 
the  state;  we  have  about  42%  of  the  representation  in  the 
legislature.  That  convention  of  twenty  years  ago  deliberately 
provided  that  at  no  time  should  our  representation  go  beyond  one 
half.  Therefore,  as  I  say,  those  who  live  outside  the  city,  who 
must  at  best  understand  our  affairs  far  less  clearly  than  we  do 
ourselves,  are  given  the  power  of  decision  in  matters  that  affect 
the  spending  of  millions  of  dollars  annually  from  the  city  treasury 
and  the  detailed  regulation  of  the  day  to  day  conduct  of  our 
people.  Our  government,  as  it  stands,  is  quite  capable  of  taking 
over  a  larger  measure  of  local  self-control.  As  it  would  be  im- 
proved under  a  new  charter,  it  will  be  even  more  capable  of  doing 
this  thing. 

Before  I  get  into  the  question  of  what  I  think  we  ought  to  have, 
may  I  sketch  very  briefly  the  present  system,  Being  peculiar  as  a 


THE   CHARTER  217 

city,  we  have  to-day  a  peculiar  form  of  government.  Perhaps  it 
approaches  more  nearly  the  commission  form,  which  we  have 
lately  talked  about  so  much  in  this  country,  than  anything  that 
came  before  these  recent  expressions  of  commission  government. 
While  the  mayor,  the  comptroller  and  the  presidents  of  the  five 
boroughs  have  each  their  separate  administrative  functions  and 
while  I  preside  over  the  board  of  aldermen,  yet  when  we  come 
together  in  the  board  of  estimate,  we  are  really  a  business 
legislature,  a  business  directorate  of  the  affairs  of  the  city,  and  it 
is  there  that  all  matters  of  larger  concern  are  settled  to-day.  We 
get  over  the  little  difficulty  of  the  proportion  of  geographical 
representation  by  giving  to  the  mayor,  the  comptroller  and  the 
president  of  the  board  of  aldermen  three  votes  each;  the  presi- 
dents of  Brooklyn  and  Manhattan,  two  votes  each;  and  those  of 
the  three  smaller  boroughs,  one  vote  each.  Under  that  plan  you 
have  eight  men  casting  sixteen  votes,  but  you  have  three  who 
cast  the  majority,  and  if  it  is  necessary  that  they  should  act 
together  in  any  matter  that  concerns  the  city  as  a  whole,  they  can 
do  it.  The  plan  has  worked  exceedingly  well.  I  have  been  in 
the  board  five  years,  four  years  as  president  of  Manhattan  and  a 
year  or  more  as  president  of  the  board  of  aldermen,  and  I  do  not 
recall  a  single  instance  within  that  time  where  there  has  been  a 
division  in  the  board  based  upon  geographical  considerations, 
nor  a  single  instance  of  difference  based  upon  lines  of  political 
opinion.  There  are  various  combinations  of  votes  that  may  be 
framed  according  to  the  individual  judgment  of  those  who  cast 
them,  but  as  a  rule  we  are  practically  unanimous,  and  our  work 
through  committees,  of  course,  tends  to  increase  that  pleasant 
agreement.  The  board  of  estimate  and  apportionment  makes 
the  budget,  controls  the  spending  of  each  department  during  the 
year,  decides  not  only  how  much  each  shall  have  in  the  aggregate, 
but  how  much  each  shall  have  for  each  one  of  its  functions,  and 
how  much  shall  be  paid  to  each  officer  or  employe,  within 
limits.  The  board  controls  the  use  of  the  city's  credit,  the  issue 
of  our  bonds  and  the  raising  of  funds  for  great  permanent  public 
improvements.  It  grants  franchises,  whether  they  be  for  a 
great  system  of  rapid  transit  railways  involving  three  hundred 
millions  of  dollars  or  for  the  right  to  string  a  wire  across  a  street. 


218  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

The  board  has  control  of  the  city  map,  that  is,  the  laying  out  of 
streets,  of  boulevards",  of  parks,  and  other  public  places;  the 
development  of  the  city  plan;  the  control  of  the  waterfront — all 
of  these  functions  that  belong  to  the  larger  business  side  of  the 
city.  In  this  board  there  is  no  veto.  The  mayor  sits  as  chair- 
man, but  he  casts  only  three  votes,  and  the  action  of  the  board  is 
final.  There  is  no  veto  that  corresponds  to  the  veto  of  an  execu- 
tive over  the  ordinary  legislative  body.  The  board  of  aldermen 
has  a  concurrent  power  in  some  of  these  matters.  It  must 
approve  the  city  budget,  it  must  approve  certain  issues  of  our 
corporate  stock  or  bonds  and  approve  the  fixing  of  salaries  of  our 
officers  and  employes;  but  it  has  very  little  independent  power 
in  financial  matters,  and  in  no  case  may  it  raise  the  amount  of 
an  appropriation.  It  may  cut  out  or  it  may  reduce,  but  it  may 
not  increase,  and  perhaps  for  that  reason  the  occasions  of  its 
intervention  have  not  been  very  frequent.  Chiefly,  the  power 
over  all  these  things  lies  in  the  board  of  estimate. 

Of  course,  the  mayor  is  the  head  of  the  great  departments. 
He  appoints  the  commissioners.  He  also  appoints  members  of 
the  board  of  education,  who,  however,  after  that  are  released 
from  his  control  and  act  practically  as  a  separate  corporate 
body.  The  comptroller  appoints  the  heads  of  the  great  bureaus 
of  finance,  and  has  very  large  powers  of  auditing  and  of  checking 
our  expenditures.  The  presidents  of  the  boroughs  each  have  their 
local  borough  offices.  Roughly  speaking,  they  control  the  public 
works  that  are  local,  the  streets,  the  sewers,  and  the  erection  of 
private  buildings.  But  all  these  people,  coming  together  in  the 
board  of  estimate,  with  the  experience  gained  in  each  of  these 
administrative  fields,  act  as  a  commission.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  com- 
mission form  of  government  to  that  degree. 

While  we  spend  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars  a  year  through 
the  action  of  this  board,  and  while  we  are  now  spending  in  our 
annual  budget  upon  an  average  perhaps  twenty  or  twenty-five 
millions  more  upon  bond  issues  for  capital  improvement  through 
the  action  of  this  board,  we  still  find  that  it  is  pretty  difficult 
to  beat  down  the  bills,  even  from  these  huge  sums.  We  find 
that  that  is  true  chiefly  because  Albany  still  controls  a  large 
measure  of  our  action.  Many  of  the  salaries  of  officers  anc} 


THE   CHARTER  219 

employes  are  fixed  by  law.  These  cannot  be  touched  by  the 
board  of  estimate  and  apportionment.  I  presume  that  if  we 
had  independent  power  (and  we  have  asked  for  it  and  failed  to 
get  it),  it  might  make  a  difference  of  eight  or  ten  millions  a  year 
in  our  budget,  through  an  adjustment  of  salaries  that  probably 
would  be  accepted  by  the  town  as  perfectly  fair  and  still  far 
in  excess  of  rates  paid  in  private  life ;  but  the  legislature  has  said 
that  the  people  of  the  city  of  New  York  shall  give  John  Jones  so 
much  money,  and  that  settles  it.  We  have  simply  to  audit  the 
bill  in  such  cases.  The  legislature  has  also  given  us  mandatory 
pension  laws  and  mandatory  laws  of  many  another  description 
that  compel  at  least  the  spending  of  money  even  though  they  do 
not  fix  individual  salaries.  Within  our  two  hundred  millions, 
there  is  less  than  a  third  that  is  in  any  measure  subject  to  our 
discretion.  Nearly  a  third  of  it  goes  for  our  debt  service,  for  the 
payment  of  instalments  on  the  debt  and  for  interest  and  sinking- 
fund  charges.  Another  large  block  is  made  of  items  such  as  I 
have  told  you.  Only  within  the  departmental  service  itself,  that 
is,  the  departments  controlled  by  the  mayor  and  borough  presi- 
dents and  comptroller,  is  there  much  chance  for  discretion.  We 
are  spending  seventy-one,  millions  of  our  two  hundred  upon  those 
departments  this  year,  and  that  represents  two  millions  less  than 
was  spent  upon  the  corresponding  work  a  year  ago.  In  other 
words,  we  have  been  beating  it  down,  but  we  have  to  come  to  a 
full  stop  when  we  reach  the  line  of  mandatory  legislation  or  when 
we  are  presented  with  the  bills  of  the  state,  or  the  payment  of 
direct  taxes  for  the  support  of  the  government  of  the  state.  These 
things  must  be  added  to  our  budget  and  they  are  not  within  our 
power  to  change.  We  expect  during  the  present  year  to  get  about 
another  million  out  of  that  seventy-one ;  possibly  we  can  decrease 
it  two  millions,  but  we  do  that  by  the  smaller  economies.  There 
is  not  much  room  left  for  pruning.  If  we  had,  however,  a  charter 
that  saved  the  waste  of  efficiency  and  of  administrative  force  that 
our  present  scattered  system  involves,  we  certainly  could  go  mil- 
lions farther  down.  I  have  led  up  to  this  rather  tediously  perhaps, 
but  I  have  gone  into  it  in  such  detail  for  the  reason  that  the  cost 
of  government  is  usually  the  vital  thing,  the  nearest  thing  to  our 
thought.  We  think  of  its  efficiency,  too,  but  everybody  wants 


220  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

the  cost  of  government  kept  down;  not  necessarily  to  spend  less, 
but  either  to  cut  down  the  bills  or  to  get  more  service  for  the 
money  that  is  spent.  Therefore,  we  ought  to  have  an  up-to-date 
system  of  administrative  machinery. 

But  beneath  our  commission  form  of  government,  what  do  we 
find?  Washington  has  nine  or  ten  compact  administrative 
departments,  their  heads  sitting  in  the  cabinet  of  the  President. 
New  York  city  has  twenty-seven  (I  think  that  is  about  the  figure ; 
it  varies  now  and  then).  We  have  departments  and  we  have 
commissions  and  we  have  boards.  We  have  overlapping  author- 
ities. In  other  words,  the  use  of  the  executive  power  is  sadly 
scattered.  In  my  judgment,  that  should  be  the  first  point  in  the 
correction  of  what  is  wrong.  The  overlapping  of  power  has  been 
well  instanced  in  the  agitation  now  proceeding  to  bring  together 
those  departments  that  have  to  do  with  building  inspection. 
There  are  four  or  five  of  them  at  present  charged  with  such  power 
—the  building  bureau  itself,  which  is  a  borough  department,  the 
tenement  house  department,  the  bureau  of  fire  prevention,  the 
factory  department  of  the  state,  the  health  department  and  the 
department  of  water  supply,  all  of  them  with  their  various 
inquiries  and  their  various  rules  to  enforce,  sending  their  inspectors 
to  one  building  if  that  building  be  a  factory  or  an  apartment 
house.  There  have  even  been  instances  recently  where  one 
department  gave  orders  that  directly  contravened  those  given  by 
another.  That,  of  course,  means  waste  of  money,  and  it  taxes  the 
patience  of  the  people  investigated.  The  only  way  to  correct  it 
is  through  charter  reform.  When  an  attempt  was  made  to  put 
through  a  special  bill  this  year  to  do  the  thing  in  advance  of 
general  charter  reform,  there  was  so  much  disagreement  between 
the  advocates  of  centralized  government  and  the  advocates  of 
the  old  borough  form  that  the  bill  has  practically  fallen ;  because 
although  it  was  passed  by  the  legislature  and  is  now  in  the  hands 
of  the  mayor,  that  official  has  given  a  pretty  clear  intimation, 
wisely  in  my  judgment,  that  he  proposes  to  veto  it,  and  therefore 
we  must  wait  for  another  year  and  the  broader  chance  of  general 
charter  revision. 

Next,  we  must  give  more  power  to  our  own  local  municipal 
legislature.  When  we  talk  of  home  rule,  we  are  apt  to  be  a  little 


THE   CHARTER  221 

Vague  as  to  just  how  we  are  going  to  get  it.  The  only  way  to  get 
it  is  actually  to  take  away  from  the  legislature  at  Albany  certain 
powers  that  they  now  exercise  and  put  them  somewhere  down 
here.  The  suggestion  has  been  made  that  we  need  no  board  of 
aldermen,  that  the  board  of  estimate  might  serve  this  purpose 
and  enact  our  local  laws.  I  had  more  or  less  of  skepticism  about 
the  board  of  aldermen  before  I  went  into  its  chair,  but  I  have 
been  convinced  as  a  result  of  my  year  and  a  half  of  experience  that 
a  great  deal  of  good  may  come  of  it.  We  have  actually  proved 
that  by  getting  a  great  deal  of  good  out  of  it.  The  board  got  to- 
gether early  in  its  present  term  and  decided  to  give  up  voluntarily 
a  lot  of  the  petty  things  upon  which  it  had  frittered  away  its  time 
in  the  past,  to  amend  its  rules  so  that  there  should  be  prompt  and 
clear  action  upon  everything  coming  before  it,  and  then  to  devote 
itself  to  a  real  program  of  constructive  legislation.  We  found 
that  the  ordinances  of  the  city,  which  have  the  force  of  law,  of 
course,  being  identical  in  that  respect  with  the  statutes  of  the 
state,  had  not  been  codified  or  revised  in  eight  years,  although 
the  law  requires  it  to  be  done  each  year.  We  have  just  prepared 
and  completed  a  revision.  We  found  that  the  building  code  had 
lain  longer  still  without  attention,  although  constant  effort  had 
been  made  to  make  it  right,  and  something  like  three  hundred 
thousand  dollars  futilely  spent  upon  it.  We  are  just  completing  a 
new  building  code,  getting  it  enacted  section  by  section,  and 
instead  of  the  two  or  three  or  four  trifling  bits  of  legislation  that 
were  passed  in  any  given  year  in  the  old  days,  we  have  turned  out 
in  one  year  between  forty  and  fifty  really  constructive  ordinances. 
The  board  likes  its  new  work,  it  is  doing  it  well,  and  I  understand 
that  nominations  for  the  board  of  aldermen  are  apt  to  be  esti- 
mated much  more  highly  in  the  future  than  they  have  been  in 
the  past. 

But,  as  to  the  new  plan — I  don't  care  whether  it  is  called  a 
board  of  aldermen  or  a  municipal  assembly  or  what  it  may  be 
called, — there  should  be  a  city  legislature,  whose  general  law- 
making  powers  should  be  greatly  increased.  I  would  take  away 
from  the  aldermen  their  concurrent  action  in  the  financial  acts  of 
the  board  of  estimate  except  in  the  approval  of  the  annual  budget. 
In  all  other  financial  particulars,  the  decision  should  remain  with 


222  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

the  business  board;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  I  would  give  the 
board  of  aldermen  greatly  increased  power  along  the  general 
lines  that  are  now  exercised  at  Albany. 

When  we  go  to  the  constitutional  convention  asking  relief,  we 
expect,  of  course,  to  receive  merely  general  grants  of  new  power. 
We  do  not  expect  the  convention  to  draw  our  charter  or  to  give  a 
great  deal  of  attention  to  the  work  that  we  are  doing  upon  the 
draft  of  the  charter,  but  we  want  general  powers  under  which  we 
may  properly  work,  and  I  presume  that  the  line  of  demarkation  is 
likely  to  run  somewhat  like  this:  that  there  should  be  left  to  the 
state  legislature  control  over  all  those  things  that  belong  to  the 
general  law  of  the  state  and  are  of  equal  application  to  any  city 
within  its  borders,  the  use  of  the  police  power  in  all  its  sub- 
divisions, the  control  of  elections,  and  of  the  principles  of  appoint- 
ment in  the  civil  service — powers  of  that  description;  but  that 
everything  relating  to  the  corporate  business  of  a  city  and  every- 
thing relating  to  the  control  of  its  petty  affairs  should  be  left 
absolutely  to  the  city  itself.  There  must  be — I  trust  there  will 
be — a  line  drawn  in  the  constitution  actually  forbidding  the  inter- 
ference of  the  state  legislature  in  matters  of  the  second  class.  If 
we  have  such  powers  and  then  a  larger  measure  of  decision  by  the 
people  in  the  adoption  of  the  new  charter,  we  can  ourselves  build 
up  a  new  system  of  city  government  that  will  take  advantage  of 
all  the  advance  that  has  been  made  anywhere  by  cities  abroad 
or  in  America,  and  place  New  York  in  the  proud  position  that 
it  ought  to 'hold. 

I  presume  that  just  as  soon  as  there  is  a  clear  intimation  of 
what  the  constitutional  convention  will  do,  we  shall  be  able  to 
go  straight  ahead  with  the  completion  of  our  work,  but  it  is  our 
purpose  to  go  slowly,  to  take  advice  from  every  one  within  the 
city  who  is  willing  and  competent  to  give  it,  and  not  to  present 
our  new  charter  to  the  next  legislature,  but  to  take  another  year 
for  it,  asking  action  at  the  legislative  session  of  1917.  The  logical 
time  to  place  in  effect  a  new  general  charter  would,  of  course,  be 
the  date  of  the  beginning  of  a  new  city  administration.  The 
four  years  of  the  present  administration  will  end  with  the  end 
of  1917.  If  a  charter  is  prepared  with  all  this  care,  made  one  of 
the  principal  issues,  perhaps,  of  the  legislature  of  1917,  and  put  in 


THE   CHARTER  223 

effect  with  1918,  that,  in  my  judgment,  would  be  the  proper 
method. 

But,  the  convention  may  go  even  farther  in  its  grant  of  home 
rule  and  give  the  city  the  right  to  initiate  the  adoption  of  its  own 
charter,  possibly  by  popular  vote,  possibly  by  a  popular  vote 
coupled  with  the  approval  of  the  legislature,  giving  that  body  a 
veto  power,  although  not  the  power  to  change  anything  that 
reaches  it. 

These  are  the  basic  principles.  In  a  sense,  it  is  too  early  to  dis- 
cuss them.  You  will  hear  a  great  deal  of  them  as  time  passes  along, 
but  assuming  that  in  some  way  or  other  we  shall  get  the  authority 
that  we  want  to  go  ahead,  then  my  plan  would  be  first  of  all  to 
turn  our  attention  to  the  division  of  the  executive  departments. 
If,  through  the  bringing  together  of  various  scattered  groups,  we 
might  have  nine  or  ten  city  departments,  corresponding  in  num- 
ber at  least  to  those  in  Washington,  it  would  be  possible  for  the 
mayor  to  draw  about  his  cabinet  table  a  real  government  and  keep 
in  personal  and  close  touch  with  what  is  going  on.  It  is  impos- 
sible to-day  for  the  mayor  to  keep  in  anything  like  that  relation 
with  the  twenty-seven  or  more  departments  that  now  exist.  I 
would  have  those  groups  brought  together  in  such  fashion  that 
the  waste  of  energy  and  money  that  I  have  exemplified  in  the 
case  of  the  building  bureaus  shall  be  avoided  for  all  time.  These 
building  inspection  departments  might  and  should  be  under  one 
head.  The  department  of  charities — a  term  which  I  trust  will 
disappear  in  our  new  terminology,  because  it  has  no  place  in  a 
description  of  what  that  department  does  for  a  part  of  the  people 
of  New  York, — 'the  department  of  hospitals,  some  of  the  functions 
of  the  department  of  health, — all  these  belong  together.  Some  of 
the  scattered  functions  of  public  works,  like  docks  and  bridges  and 
ferries,  may  readily  be  brought  together. 

I  would  not,  however,  change  in  any  material  way  the  plan 
under  which  the  boroughs  are  now  governed.  There  are  one  or 
two  smaller  functions  that  might  be  taken  away  from  them  and 
others  of  larger  importance  given  to  them.  It  is  absurd,  for 
instance,  that  there  should  be  one  jurisdiction  covering  the  build- 
ing of  the  streets  and  the  construction  and  care  of  the  sewers  and 
another  to  take  care  of  the  cleaning  or  lighting  of  the  streets. 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OP  NEV?   YORK   CITY 

There  is  room  for  the  bringing  together  of  such  functions. 
Possibly  even  the  department  of  parks,  treated  as  a  part  of  the 
general  physical  lay-out  of  the  town,  might  be  added  to  that 
which  controls  the  streets.  That  sort  of  thing  I  would  keep  on 
the  borough  basis,  but  otherwise  I  would  have  everything  cen- 
tralized in  the  city  government  and  in  a  small  number  of 
departments. 

Coming  to  the  control  of  the  action  of  these  departments,  I 
would  make  the  mayor  within  his  own  field  absolute.  I  would 
take  away  any  power  of  intervention  in  the  police  department, 
for  instance.  That  exists  to-day  in  the  right  to  remove  the 
police  commissioner  vested  in  the  governor  of  the  state.  It  has 
always  seemed  to  me  a  far  stretch  of  imagination  to  hold  that 
this  particular  municipal  department,  because  it  exercises  the 
abstract  police  power  of  the  state,  should  be  subject  to  control  of 
this  sort. 

The  borough  presidents  I  do  not  think  should  be  the  actual 
administrative  heads  of  working  departments  as  they  are  to-day. 
I  would  have  them  sit  in  the  board  of  estimate  as  they  do,  but 
I  would  have  them  appoint  borough  heads  of  departments  who 
shall  have  independent  functions  just  as  the  mayor's  commissioners 
have.  That  has  been  another  difficulty  in  our  actual  experience, 
not  a  serious  difficulty,  but  still  it  is  not  quite  logical  that  those  who 
spend  the  money  directly  for  themselves  should  pass  upon  the 
resolutions  that  permit  the  spending  of  that  money.  It  is  rather 
interesting  to  note  in  passing,  however,  that  although  this  objec- 
tion to  the  presence  of  the  borough  presidents  in  the  board  of 
estimate  is  of  long  standing  and  was  so  strongly  urged  at  the  time 
of  our  Hughes  commission  that  there  was  a  movement  to  take 
them  out,  nevertheless,  under  the  past  administration,  it  was  the 
borough  presidents  who  cut  down  their  accounts  more  than  any 
other  city  officers.  Instead  of  log-rolling  within  the  board,  they 
got  together  to  set  the  example  to  the  broader  city  departments, 
and  there  are  two  of  the  borough  governments  under  the  late 
administration  that  held  respectively  first  and  second  place  in 
the  amount  that  they  saved  for  the  city  through  the  economy  of 
their  administration  and  the  reduction  of  their  appropriations. 
So  I  do  not  urge  that  as  a  reason  for  any  change,  and  indeed  the 


THE   CHARTER  225 

change  would  be  in  some  degree  technical  and  slight.  Neverthe- 
less, I  think  that  the  borough  presidents  should  not  be  the  heads 
of  their  own  departments,  and  that  they  should  not  appoint  all 
the  rank  and  file  of  their  subordinates,  but  should  appoint  the 
men  who  do  these  things,  just  as  the  mayor  appoints  his  com- 
missioners of  departments. 

Coming  to  the  board  of  aldermen,  I  would  give  it  at  the  outset 
a  new  code  of  ordinances,  taking  our  present  body  of  ordinances 
as  the  basis,  a  code  that  will  take  out  of  the  present  charter  a 
great  deal  of  the  local  matter.  We  tried  that  in  the  Hughes 
commission.  We  sent  our  charter  to  Albany  in  that  form.  The 
plan  there  was  to  have  the  legislature  pass  two  instruments,  one 
covering  the  general  law  of  the  state  as  applied  to  cities,  our 
charter  proper,  the  other  covering  these  details  in  a  code  of 
ordinances,  the  administrative  code,  as  we  call  it.  However 
that  may  be  adopted  in  the  first  instance,  it  should  be  given 
over  to  the  new  municipal  assembly  to  work  under  after  that, 
and  there  the  people  of  the  city  of  New  York  would  find  their 
opportunity  to  run  their  own  affairs.  Just  as  soon  as  you  give  to 
your  municipal  legislature  the  greater  dignity  that  this  would 
bring  it,  you  will  find  that  those  good  men  who  are  there  now 
would  receive  others  who  are  good,  that  the  tone  of  the  board 
would  constantly  rise,  and  that  you  would  have  hearings  at  the 
city  hall  upon  matters  of  legislation  certainly  as  important, 
dignified  and  satisfactory  as  those  that  are  now  held  at  Albany. 

These  are  rather  general  reflections  upon  this  subject.  What 
I  appeal  for  is  a  considerable  amount  of  public  attention  to  it 
and  of  study  of  its  various  parts.  The  city  must  get  behind  the 
program  of  its  charter  commission  if  that  program  is  to  be 
approved.  The  voice  of  the  city  at  Albany  must  be  heard  in 
strong  and  unmistakable  terms.  The  city  of  New  York  can  have 
the  better  and  larger  measure  of  self-government  that  it  deserves, 
but  it  must  ask  for  it,  must  demand  it  and  must  organize  to  get 
it.  Therefore,  right  at  the  outset,  let  us  agree  that  there  shall 
be  much  intimate  study  of  these  things.  The  citizens  have  only 
to  call  on  the  charter  commission  to  secure  all  the  information 
they  may  wish.  We  certainly  shall  want  aid. 

The  city  is  going  to  be  infinitely  greater  in  the  near  future. 


226  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

It  never  stops  growing.  We  find  an  almost  unbroken  rate  of 
3j%  per  year  in  the  increase  of  its  population.  You  will  see  that 
each  decade,  in  other  words,  it  adds  a  third  of  new  people,  and,  of 
course,  constantly  increasing  wealth*  We  are  entitled  to  the 
best  form  of  government  that  can  be  devised.  It  is  going  to 
make  not  only  for  our  future  comfort  and  prosperity,  our  health 
and  daily  satisfaction  with  the  way  things  go  on  here,  but  it  is 
going  to  make  for  greater  moral  satisfaction,  because  we  shall 
become  more  completely  self-controlled,  and  I  trust  and  believe 
that  we  shall  use  our  power  well.  I  want  New  York  city  to 
have,  in  short,  just  as  large  a  measure  of  self-government  as  is 
consistent  with  its  continuance  as  a  part  of  the  state.  It  is 
entitled  to  exactly  that,  and  we  shall,  I  am  sure,  work  constantly 
together  to  bring  that  result  about. 


DISCUSSION  OF  THE  CITY  CHARTER 

THOMAS  I.  PARKINSON,  Legislative  Drafting  Bureau,  Columbia  Univer- 
sity: 

Mr.  McAneny's  talk  has  been  interesting,  I  am  sure,  to  every  one 
who  has  heard  it.  It  has  been  particularly  interesting  to  me  because 
it  is  the  most  comprehensive  statement  of  general  proposals  for  revision 
of  the  New  York  charter  that  has  been  presented  since  the  charter  revision 
commission  reports  of  1907  and  1909. 

This  whole  question  of  a  city  charter,  and  particularly  the  revision 
of  the  charter  of  the  city  of  New  York,  involves  two  main  problems. 
One  is  the  determination  of  the  broad  questions  of  policy  involved  in 
formulating  a  basic  organization  for  the  government  and  its  general 
powers  and  duties.  The  other  is  the  statement  of  those  conclusions  of 
policy  so  that  they  may  dovetail  into  that  great  mass  of  local  legislation 
referred  to  by  President  Butler  which  now  makes  up  our  charter  and 
much  of  which  exists  outside  of  our  charter.  The  revision  commissions 
of  1907  and  1909  gave  most  of  their  time  to  the  consideration  of  broad 
questions  of  policy,  and  I  should  say  their  revision  probably  failed  of 
enactment  largely  because  they  gave  so  little  time  to  the  consolidation 
of  the  great  mass  of  local  legislation  which  affords  so  many  opportunities 
for  persons  who  are  opposed  to  a  proposed  revision  to  object  to  it  on 
specific  grounds.  The  Gaynor  committee,  on  the  other  hand,  directed 
its  attention  particularly  to  the  revision  of  all  existing  legislation  applica- 
ble to  the  city,  with  the  design  of  making  it  more  intelligible  both  to 
the  layman  and  to  the  city  official. 

Most  of  the  important  bills  for  the  amendment  of  the  city  charter 
which  have  been  considered  by  the  legislature  in  the  past  few  years 
have  been  based  upon  the  proposals  of  the  commissions  of  1907  and 
1909.  Some  of  Mr.  McAneny's  proposals  this  afternoon  were  first 
suggested  by  those  commissions,  but  the  comprehensive  statement  of 
the  policies  which  should  underlie  reorganization  of  the  city  government 
which  he  has  given  us  this  afternoon  is  the  first  thing  of  its  kind  that 
I  have  heard  or  seen  for  at  least  five  years.  I  think  it  an  extremely 
important  contribution  both  to  these  lectures  and  to  the  subject  of  city 
charter  revision,  but  I  want  to  emphasize  what  is  perhaps  a  hobby  of  mine, 
and  that  is  that  before  any  thorough  revision  of  our  city  charter  can  be 
adopted  the  great  mass  of  local  legislation  inside  the  charter  and  outside, 
the  charter  relating  to  the  city  government  must  be  thoroughly  studied 
and  consolidated.  If  this  mass  of  local  legislation  is  not  got  under  con- 

(227) 


228  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

trol  it  will  torment  the  proponents  of  any  new  charter  and  in  all  likeli- 
hood defeat  their  efforts.  This  is  particularly  the  work  of  a  city  agency 
and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  has  been  undertaken  and  is  under  way,  or 
will  shortly  be  undertaken  by  the  charter  committee  of  which  Mr.  Mc- 
Aneny  is  chairman. 

The  need  for  some  change  in  the  relation  of  the  city  to  the  state  and 
particularly  in  relation  to*  the  power  of  the  legislature  by  special  legis- 
lation to  impose  mandatory  requirements  on  the  city  was  never  more 
forcibly  presented  to  the  public  mind  than  during  the  session  just  ended. 
The  difference  of  opinion  between  state  officials  and  the  city  adminis- 
tration, though  based  primarily  on  the  question  of  state  taxes,  has  re- 
sulted in  a  lack  of  co-operation  between  them  on  the  details  of  important 
legislation  affecting  the  city.  The  governor  vetoed  the  garbage  con- 
tract bill  on  the  ground  that  under  its  indefinite  terms  the  city  might 
assume  financial  responsibilities  which  it  could  not  afford  at  this  time; 
and  for  this  action  he  was  severely  criticized  by  the  city  officials.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  mayor  vetoed  the  supplies  purchasing  bill  providing 
for  purchase  of  all  city  supplies  by  a  central  agency,  which  has  passed 
the  legislature  after  several  years  of  effort  to  bring  about  this  much- 
needed  reform.  Similar  differences  of  opinion  between  the  legislative 
leaders  and  the  city  officials  seem  likely  to  result  in  the  failure  of  the 
bill  designed  to  eliminate  duplication  and  unnecessary  expense  in  the 
inspection  of  buildings  within  the  city.  State  and  city  officials  in  an 
earnest  effort  to  make  necessary  compromises  of  their  individual  ideas 
might  have  secured  some,  at  least,  of  these  important  reforms,  the  defeat 
of  which  by  one  mode  or  another  seems  to  the  ordinary  citizen  to  be 
bound  up  in  some  manner  with  the  direct-tax  controversy. 

It  would  have  been  advantageous  to  the  future  revisers  of  the  city 
charter  to  have  had  the  benefit  of  some  experience  under  these  pro- 
posed changes  in  the  organization  and  powers  of  the  city  government. 
Unquestionably  the  situation  suggests  the  importance  of  a  constitu- 
tional amendment  either  restricting  the  power  of  the  legislature  to  inter- 
fere with  the  administration  of  purely  local  business  or  granting  to  the 
city  the  power  to  make  and  amend  its  own  charter. 

The  experience  of  the  few  past  years  and  of  the  most  recent  charter 
revision  commissions  and  committees  indicates  only  too  clearly  the 
difficulty  of  preparing  a  charter  which  would  have  a  reasonable  chance 
of  approval  at  the  hands  of  the  people  of  the  city  or  the  city  officials  and 
which  could  at  the  same  time  run  the  gauntlet  of  the  state  legislature. 
The  differences  of  official  opinion  during  the  session  just  closed  have  only 
emphasized  the  possibilities  of  political  juggling  on  important  city  meas- 


THE   CHARTER  229 

ures  and  the  difficulty  of  securing  a  completely  revised  charter  from  the 
legislature. 

Home  rule  is  an  elusive  sort  of  panacea.  The  city  is  demanding  home 
rule  in  the  sense  that  it  be  free  from  domination  in  Albany.  Brooklyn 
is  equally  alert  for  home  rule  in  the  sense  that  it  be  free  from  domination 
by  the  board  of  estimate  sitting  in  Manhattan.  Home  rule  in  the  sense 
of  freedom  from  legislative  interference  in  matters  of  detail  will  un- 
questionably receive  serious  consideration  from  the  constitutional  con- 
vention, and  will  probably  result  in  action  at  least  restricting  the  legis- 
lative power  to  interfere,  but  home  rule  means  also  to  many  people  the 
power  of  the  city  to  adopt  its  own  charter.  Whether  this  power  also 
be  granted  to  cities  by  the  constitutional  convention,  or  whether  they 
must  as  heretofore  secure  the  general  charter  of  municipal  government 
from  the  legislature,  the  problems  of  studying  existing  legislation  and  of 
working  out  in  detail  proposals  for  amendment  are  the  same.  The 
problem  of  securing  adoption  by  the  legislature  or  adoption  by  the  people 
may  be  different,  but  in  either  event  the  difficulty  of  this  problem  will 
be  materially  lessened  by  a  thorough  and  complete  mastery  in  detail 
of  existing  local  law.  With  particular  ideas  for  the  amendment  of  the 
charter  I  am  now  concerned  only  to  the  extent  that  I  should  like  to  see 
all  the  suggestions  of  every  one  presented,  studied  and  intelligently 
passed  upon  by  just  such  a  committee  as  that  of  which  Mr.  McAneny 
is  chairman.  What  I  want  particularly  to  emphasize  is  that  when  the 
conclusions  of  this  committee  have  been  reached,  they  should  be  expressed 
in  clear,  precise  and  effective  statutory  language  and  should  be  dovetailed 
into  or  substituted  for  the  great  mass  of  detailed  legislation  in  or  outside 
the  charter  relating  to  the  city,  its  organization,  powers  and  duties. 

Because  Mr.  McAneny  has  so  fully  covered  the  subject  of  the  city 
charter  from  the  points  of  view  in  which  you  are  most  interested,  as  an 
illustration  of  what  I  have  in  mind  I  am  going  to  say  something  about 
a  topic  which  is  uppermost  in  the  public  mind  at  the  present  time. 

The  constitution  of  the  state  of  New  York  authorizes  the  state  to 
issue  bonds  for  highway  purposes.  The  purpose  of  the  constitutional 
convention  of  1894  when  it  authorized  the  state  to  issue  these  bonds  for 
highway  improvements  was  unquestionably  to  spread  equally  over  a 
period  of  fifty  years  the  taxes  which  would  provide  for  the  redemption  of 
those  bonds.  There  is  no  doubt  about  the  spirit  of  that  provision  or 
the  purpose  of  the  members  of  the  convention,  but  when  that  provision 
was  formulated  in  the  constitution,  it  read  like  this:  "Provided  a 
sinking  fund  be  established  for  their  redemption  and  at  least  two  per  cent 
per  annum  be  paid  into  that  sinking  fund."  The  formulation  of  that 


230  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

provision  was  detail,  and  too  many  of  us  after  we  have  settled  the  ques- 
tion of  general  policy  are  unwilling  to  give  time  to  detail.  It  seemed  a 
simple  mathematical  computation  that  if  the  state  were  to  have  a  hun- 
dred per  cent  in  the  sinking  fund  at  the  end  of  fifty  years, 
then  it  should  pay  two  per  cent  each  year  into  the  fund.  It  is  a 
perfectly  simple  mathematical  calculation,  but  it  unfortunately  does 
not  take  into  consideration  the  fact  that  every  cent  paid  into  the 
fund  this  year  draws  interest  for  each  succeeding  year  until  the  end 
of  the  fifty-year  term.  The  result  is  that  under  the  apparently  harm- 
less provision  carrying  out  the  general  spirit  of  the  convention's  decision, 
if  the  state  goes  on  paying  into  that  fund  two  per  cent  per  annum,  the 
necessary  funds  for  the  redemption  of  those  bonds  will  be  available 
in  about  twenty-five  instead  of  fifty  years.  In  other  words,  whereas 
the  convention  intended  that  the  taxes  to  redeem  those  bonds  should 
be  spread  over  fifty  years,  they  will,  in  fact,  be  spread  over  only  about 
twenty-five  or  twenty-six  years,  because  contributions  at  the  rate  of 
two  per  cent  are  going  to  produce  a  sum  sufficient  to  redeem  the  entire 
bond  issue,  not  in  fifty  years  but  in  half  that  time.  And  so  it  is  with 
the  other  sinking  funds  of  the  state  of  New  York.  They  contain  at  the 
present  moment  an  excess  over  their  requirements,  according  to  the  state 
comptroller's  report  for  the  year  ending  September  30,  1914,  of  about 
twenty-nine  millions.  They  actually  contain  over  thirty-four  million 
dollars,  while  they  need  according  to  the  comptroller's  computation 
less  than  five  million  dollars  at  the  present  time,  leaving  an  excess  of 
about  twenty -nine  million  dollars  over  the  requirements  of  those  funds. 
The  annual  payments  have  been  far  in  excess  of  the  amounts  needed 
for  the  redemption  of  outstanding  bonds  and  they  must  continue  to  be 
in  excess,  because  the  constitution  provides  that  a  certain  sum  shall 
be  paid  annually  into  the  sinking  fund,  or  the  laws  passed  in  pursuance 
of  the  constitutional  provision  provide  that  a  certain  sum  shall  be 
annually  appropriated  or  raised  by  taxes  for  those  funds. 

The  state  sometimes  needs  the  benefit  of  the  city's  experience,  and  I 
am  taking  advantage  of  this  opportunity  to  throw  out  for  what  it  is 
worth  the  suggestion  that  the  state  follow  the  action  of  the  city  a  few 
years  ago  when  it  amended  its  charter  under  similar  circumstances  to 
provide  for  the  transfer  of  just  such  excess  funds  in  the  city's  sinking 
fund  to  the  general  fund  for  the  reduction  of  taxation.  Precisely  the 
same  situation  existed  in  the  sinking  funds  of  the  city  of  New  York  in 
1907.  By  reason  of  pledges  of  particular  income  to  the  city  sinking 
funds  there  had  accumulated  in  them  many  millions  in  excess  of  their 
then  requirements.  Their  assets  were  sacredly  pledged  to  the  payment 


THE   CHARTER  231 

of  the  bonds  charged  against  them.  The  city  charter  declared  the  exist- 
ence of  a  contract  between  the  city  and  its  bondholders  not  to  divert 
any  of  the  assets  or  income  of  these  funds.  It  was  obvious,  however, 
that  no  purpose  would  be  served  by  continuing  to  heap  up  in  the  sinking 
funds  a  huge  surplus  in  excess  of  their  requirements.  The  financial 
and  legal  difficulty  was  overcome  by  a  highly  technical  amendment 
to  the  city  charter  which  authorized  the  sinking  fund  commissioners 
to  invest  its  surplus  funds  in  general  fund  bonds.  These  general  fund 
bonds  are  obligations  of  the  city,  but  they  do  not  bear  interest  and  they 
are  to  be 'cancelled  when  the  sinking  fund  which  holds  them  has  paid 
off  the  bonds  chargeable  against  it.  No  objection  has  been  raised  to 
this  scheme,  under  which  many  millions  of  excess  moneys  in  the  sinking 
funds  have  been  turned  over  to  the  general  fund  for  the  reduction  of 
taxation.  Is  it  not  possible  for  the  state  to  secure  the  funds  heaped 
up  in  the  state  sinking  funds  by  excess  appropriations  or  taxes  during 
the  past  few  years,  by  transferring  such  surplus  to  the  general  fund  and 
issuing  to  the  sinking  funds  bonds  similar  to  the  general  fund  bonds 
used  for  the  same  purpose  in  the  city?  It  will,  of  course,  be  objected 
that  the  transfer  of  these  excess  funds  will  be  a  violation  of  the  state's 
obligation  to  its  bondholders,  or  the  provision  of  its  constitution  and 
statutes.  But  precisely  the  same  objection  was  urged  against  the  city's 
making  use  of  the  surplus  in  its  funds.  Nevertheless  it  was  accomplished 
with  justice  to  all  parties  and  to  the  relief  of  current  taxpayers. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  there  is  not  any  violation  of  the  provisions  of  the 
constitution  or  the  statutes  involved  in  this  proposal.  Annual  appro- 
priations or  taxes  at  rates  which  have  proved  excessive  must  continue 
to  be  paid  into  these  funds,  but  when  so  paid  in  it  is  proposed  that  they 
be  invested  in  general  fund  bonds  instead  of  in  highway  or  canal  bonds. 
If  these  general  fund  bonds  are  ever  needed  to  fulfil  the  purpose  of  the 
sinking  fund  they  can  be  enforced  against  the  state,  but  if  not  needed 
they  would  be  cancelled  when  the  bonds  chargeable  to  the  fund  are 
fully  redeemed.  The  net  result  as  shown  by  the  city's  experience  is 
simply  to  transfer  to  purposes  for  which  they  are  needed  excess  funds 
raised  by  current  taxes  for  purposes  for  which  they  are  not  needed. 

The  unquestionable  purpose  of  constitutional  and  statutory  pro- 
visions authorizing  fifty-year  bonds  redeemable  from  sinking  funds  is 
that  taxes  for  redemption  of  such  bonds  should  be  spread  over  the  full 
term  of  fifty  years.  It  happens  that  the  letter  of  these  provisions  violates 
their  spirit  in  that  the  taxpayers  of  the  past  few  years  and  of  the  current 
and  immediately  succeeding  years  are  paying  much  more  towards  the 
redemption  of  these  bonds  than  is  required  for  their  redemption  at  the 


232  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

end  of  fifty  years.  These  tax  provisions  are  as  if  the  bonds  were  author- 
ized for  twenty-five  years  rather  than  fifty  years.  While  their  pro- 
visions cannot  be  amended,  except  possibly  by  the  constitutional  con- 
vention, the  city's  experience  suggests  that  it  is  practical  to  transfer 
the  excess  to  the  reduction  of  current  taxes  without  violence  to  either 
the  spirit  or  the  letter  of  the  law.  Some  amendments  of  existing  consti- 
tutional provisions  respecting  state  debt  will  probably  be  necessary 
before  such  a  transfer  can  be  satisfactorily  accomplished.  However, 
I  refer  to  the  matter  at  this  time  for  the  purpose  not  of  solving  the  state's 
problem  but  of  illustrating  the  embarrassing  consequences  -of  failure 
to  give  attention  .to  details  in  the  drafting  of  such  documents  as  con- 
stitutions and  charters. 

RICHARD  S.  CHILDS,  Secretary  of  the  National  Short  Ballot  Organiza- 
tion: 

The  last  sincere  attempt  to  rewrite  the  charter  of  New  York  city 
was  wrecked  upon  the  rock  of  borough  autonomy.  The  rock  is  still  there. 
It  showed  itself  in  the  attempt  to  decentralize  the  tenement  house  depart- 
ment and  the  fire  prevention  bureau  in  the  Lockwood-Ellenbogen  building 
inspection  bill.  It  showed  itself  in  opposition  to  the  abolition  of  the 
coroner.  We  shall  not  be  able  to  abolish  the  archaic  institution  of 
county  government  without  encountering  it. 

In  1902,  when  the  present  charter  was  four  years  old,  it  was  amended 
to  give  the  borough  presidents  their  present  administrative  powers,  but 
in  spite  of  that  large  concession  there  has  been  continuous  dissatisfaction 
among  the  boroughs  outside  of  Manhattan.  An  extreme  exhibition  of 
that  discontent  is  shown  in  the  attempt  of  Rockaway  to  secede  from  the 
city.  The  average  Manhattanite  is  apt  to  regard  this  discontent  in 
somewhat  the  same  way  as  an  English  Tory  looks  upon  the  discontent 
of  Ireland,  as  irritating  and  unnecessary. 

Borough  autonomism  is  partly  a  kind  of  provincialism  which  is  largely 
the  reaction  from  the  supreme  provincialism  of  the  Manhattanite,  who 
devoutly  believes  that  New  York  city  is  a  long  narrow  tongue  of  land 
bounded  by  the  East  and  North  Rivers.  Borough  autonomism  is  partly 
a  survival  of  the  old  days  before  consolidation.  It  is  partly  a  sound  and 
wholesome  theory  that  government  should  be  as  local  as  possible,  inas- 
much as  democratic  institutions  work  better  the  nearer  they  come  to 
the  people,  in  ways  geographical  as  well  as  otherwise.  Just  as  the  state 
should  stick  to  state  affairs  and  leave  the  cities  free  to  work  out  their 
own  salvation,  so,  they  contend,  the  cities  should  leave  to  the  boroughs 
everything  which  is  not  clearly  a  city  function,  incapable  of  distribution 


THE   CHARTER  233 

to  the  smaller  units.  And  partly,  borough  autonomism  is  an  instinctive 
localism  which  might  as  well  be  reckoned  with  as  a  feature  of  human 
nature,  and  harnessed  for  a  good  use. 

Of  course,  the  great  impediment  to  borough  autonomy  is  the  fact  that 
the  outside  boroughs  are  not  willing  to  pay  their  own  autonomous  ways. 
Neither  is  the  city  willing  to  have  them.  Every  city  must  invest  in 
the  development  of  its  outskirts  at  the  expense  of  the  older  central  sec- 
tion, in  order  to  provide  for  the  growth  of  the  city.  The  demands  of  the 
younger  boroughs  for  money,  however,  at  the  expense  of  Manhattan 
grow  less  each  year  as  the  city  fills  up,  and  I  believe  we  are  reaching  a 
point  where  we  can  ignore  the  differences  in  the  tax  rate  which  would 
ensue  and  allow  each  borough  to  raise  its  own  taxes  and  spend  them  for 
all  local  improvements,  including  street  paving,  sewers,  parks,  street 
cleaning  and  public  buildings.  The  city,  however,  should  reserve  to  itself 
the  power  to  regulate  or  take  over  from  the  boroughs  anything  which  it 
deemed  to  be  a  city  affair.  The  city,  for  example,  should  be  free  to  lay 
out  a  city  plan  for  the  main  through  routes  and  parkways  of  the  city, 
to  which  plan  the  boroughs  would  have  to  conform  in  laying  out  local 
projects.  The  city  also  should  be  free  to  take  care  of  such  a  parkway 
system,  to  pave  it  and  plant  it  and  clean  it.  The  city  would  also  take  care 
of  such  buildings  as  a  museum  which  it  deems  to  be  a  city  institution 
as  distinguished  from  a  borough  institution  like  the  borough  hall. 

As  the  borough  presidents  cannot  be  allowed,  single  handed,  to  levy 
and  expend  taxes,  there  must  then  be  created  a  borough  commission  of 
at  least  three  members.  Such  a  board  should  be  limited  in  function  to 
determination  of  policies  and  should  carry  out  those  policies  through  the 
medium  of  a  borough  manager  appointed  by  the  commission  and  holding 
office  at  its  pleasure.  The  borough  commission  in  the  larger  boroughs, 
Brooklyn  and  Manhattan,  might  properly  be  somewhat  larger,  five  mem- 
bers, or  seven,  in  which  case  they  should  be  elected  in  rotation  or  from 
districts,  so  as  to  keep  a  wieldy  district  and  a  short  ballot.  A  joint  meet- 
ing of  all  the  borough  commissions  might  constitute  a  good  substitute 
for  the  board  of  aldermen.  It  could  not,  however,  assume  the  powers 
of  the  board  of  estimate  as  the  supreme  board  of  directors  of  the  city 
unless  there  were  added  to  its  number  a  group  of  members  to  represent 
the  city  as  a  whole  to  balance  the  localism  of  the  borough  members. 
In  England,  where  the  ward-elected  council  is  universal,  the  councils 
increase  their  membership  one-third  by  the  election  of  aldermen  who  have 
longer  terms  expiring  in  .rotation. 

Such  a  scheme  to  my  mind  is  much  preferable  to  electing  any  officers 
at  large  by  popular. vote  in  a  city  as  big  as  this.  Election  at  large  in 


234  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK    CITY 

New  York  city,  or  even  in  any  of  the  boroughs,  with  the  exception  of 
Richmond,  gives  us  the  "unwieldy  district."  An  unwieldy  district  is 
one  so  large  that  no  one  but  a  multi-millionaire  can  be  a  candidate  inde- 
pendently with  any  hope  of  success.  If  we  are  ever  to  get  rid  of  Tammany 
Hall  in  this  city,  we  must  make  it  unnecessary,  and  that  means  making 
the  Republican  machine  and  the  committees  of  one  hundred  unneces- 
sary also.  We  must  create  conditions  where  a  candidate  with  only 
ordinary  resources  and  an  improvised,  temporary  organization,  can 
run  for  office  with  some  hope  of  success,  without  being  compelled  to  go 
hat  in  hand  to  petition  for  the  royal  endorsement  of  Tammany  Hall 
or  a  Committee  of  One  Hundred  or  any  other  strongly-financed  standing 
organization.  Free  competition  for  public  office  does  not  and  never 
can  exist  in  such  colossal  electoral  units  as  these.  Under  such  conditions 
big  campaign  funds  and  a  standing  army  of  political  mercenaries  are 
indispensable  adjuncts  to  success  in  a  political  campaign. 

The  present  condition  is  more  unfortunate  than  we  sometimes  realize. 
Every  four  years  there  is  a  gigantic  paroxysm  of  civic  effort  to  defeat 
Tammany  once  more.  We  hazard  everything,  double  or  quits,  on  the 
single  personality  of  our  candidate  for  mayor.  If  Mr.  Mitchel  had  said 
some  foolish  thing  during  the  last  campaign  or  if  some  scandal  had  been 
turned  up  in  his  past  life,  the  history  of  the  whole  city  for  the  next  four 
years  might  have  been  radically  changed.  Likewise  after  election  our 
charter  makes  us  hazard  too  much  on  single  personalities,  and  the  shape 
of  the  future  city  and  the  adequacy  of  its  great  arteries  of  communi- 
cation depend  too  largely  upon  the  happy  fact  that  Mr.  McAneny's 
health  did  not  collapse  during  the  great  subway  negotiations. 

So,  under  our  present  charter  we  get  intermittent  good  government, 
and  Chicago,  with  its  powerful  board  of  aldermen  elected  from  compact 
wards  at  a  separate  election,  is  in  some  ways  nearer  to  stable  good  govern- 
ment than  we  are.  We  are  living  now  in  a  fool's  paradise,  cheerfully 
taking  it  for  granted  that  Tammany  will  never  come  back  and  that  the 
splendid  administrative  reforms  of  the  present  era  could  not  possibly 
be  quietly  slipped  into  the  discard'  by  the  next  administration.  A  new 
charter,  if  put  into  effect  in  time  for  the  next  municipal  election,  can 
prevent  reaction,  but  it  must  do  so  not  by  the  printing  of  endless  words 
minutely  regulating  the  procedure  of  future  municipal  officers,  but  by 
broadening  the  base  of  the  pyramid  of  government,  founding  it  securely 
upon  popular  consent,  bringing  it  nearer  to  the  people,  geographically 
and  in  every  other  way,  and  so  arranging  the  field  of  politics  that  the 
people  can  deal  directly  with  their  candidates  without  the  intermediation 
of  a  Tammany  Hall  or  a  committee  of  one  hundred. 


TRANSPORTATION,  PORT  AND  TERMINAL  FACILITIES 

JOHN   PURROY   MITCHEL 

Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York 

WE  are  all  accustomed  to  think  of  New  York  as  the  greatest 
city  of  this  continent,  the  second  largest  city  of  the 
world,  the  largest  city  of  the  world  of  the  future;  but 
we  do  not  often  stop  to  .think  of  it  as  the  greatest  port  that  this 
nation  has,  now  the  greatest  port  of  the  world.  It  is  a  fact  that 
into  this  port  and  out  of  it  passes  a  greater  bulk  of  commerce  than 
into  and  out  of  any  other  port  of  the  world.  It  is  a  fact  that 
through  the  port  of  New  York  comes  more  than  fifty  per  cent  of 
the  commerce  of  the  country.  Because  New  York  is  a  port  it  has 
grown  to  the  size  that  we  see  to-day,  has  achieved  its  present 
richness,  has  attained  its  present  marvelous  development  of  com- 
merce and  of  social  and  human  resources.  It  is  only  a  few  years 
ago  that  Hamburg  boasted  a  greater  volume  of  imports  and 
exports  than  any  other  city;  but  to-day  New  York  stands  first 
with  a  volume  of  $1,966,000,000,  while  Hamburg  stands  second 
with  $1,960,000,000,  and  London  and  Liverpool  come  third  and 
fourth  in  the  list.  Of  the  imports  of  this  country  57%  passed 
through  the  port  of  New  York  last  year,  and  of  the  exports  37%; 
and  it  is  a  fact  with  which  I  suppose  most  of  us  are  not  familiar 
that  while  New  York  stands  first,  Galveston  is  second  in  importance 
of  the  ports  of  the  country,  New  Orleans  third,  and  Boston  fourth. 
As  Professor  Seligman  said,  this  city  owes  a  great  deal  to  the 
natural  advantages  given  it  by  its  geographical  location  and  by 
the  formation  of  the  waters  about  Manhattan  Island.  It  owes  a 
great  deal,  too,  to  the  development  of  these  natural  advantages 
by  the  city  government,  and,  unfortunately  in  much  less  degree, 
to  their  development  by  the  national  government.  But  until  a 
few  years  ago  the  city  of  New  York  had  relied  upon  these  natural 
advantages  and  had  not  awakened  to  an  appreciation  of  the  neces-r 
sity  for  their  development  to  maximum  capacity  through  the 
agency  of  the  city  government.  We  have  awakened  to  that  now, 

(235) 


236  THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

The  government  of  the  city,  beginning  with  the  last  administra- 
tion, set  about  laying  down  comprehensive  plans  for  the  complete 
development  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  port,  and  it  is  prepared 
to-day  to  go  forward  with  two  or  three  of  the  principal  works  in 
the  general  plan  of  the  development  of  these  resources. 
.  If  it  were  not  for  the  fact  that  New  York  finds  herself,  in  com- 
mon with  all  other  cities,  unable  to  adjust  her  financial  resources 
to  the  demands  for  the  development  of  her  physical  plant  to  its 
fullest  degree,  we  should  be  in  a  position  before  the  end  of  this 
administration  to  adopt  and  carry  into  effect  plans  for  the  develop- 
ment of  practically  all  of  the  waterfront  in  the  port  that  this  city 
now  owns  and  controls.  The  city  has  578  miles  of  waterfront. 
I  suppose  that  few  people  appreciate  that  fact.  They  think  of 
the  waterfront  of  the  city  as  the  periphery  of  Manhattan  Island 
and  a  part  of  the  Brooklyn  shore.  They  forget  the  great  area  of 
The  Bronx  that  borders  on  navigable  waters,  and  the  great  area 
of  Queens  and  Richmond.  Of  that  waterfront  New  York  city 
owns  127  miles,  and  it  has  developed  and  improved  but  47  miles. 
I  suppose  that  the  day  will  come  when  New  York  will  own  all 
the  commercially  usable  waterfront  and  all  of  the  waterfront  that 
can  be  devoted  to  recreational  or  park  purposes,  but  it  will  not 
come  very  soon.  The  financial  resources  of  the  city  limit  it.  We 
should  be  glad  to-day  to  go  down  to  Brooklyn  and  to  buy  every 
inch  of  waterfront  from  the  Brooklyn  Bridge  to  Sixty-fifth  street. 
We  see  the  opportunity  there  for  the  creation  of  a  great  municipal 
rail  and  water  terminal,  with  the  docks  and  the  railroad  and  the 
warehouses  and  commercial  enterprises  behind  the  docks  all 
articulated ;  but  we  have  not  at  this  moment  the  financial  resources 
to  undertake  the  acquisition  of  that  great  tract  of  waterfront 
and  its  complete  improvement.  Perhaps  when  the  policy — the 
new  financial  policy  of  the  city  which  I  outlined  when  I  spoke  in 
this  room  a  few  weeks  ago — has  been  in  force  for  a  few  years,  and 
we  have  succeeded  in  cutting  down  the  total  of  the  city's  non- 
income-producing  debt — I  mean  the  debt  incurred  for  those  public 
works  that  do  not  produce  revenue — and  when  we  have  succeeded 
in  cutting  down  some  of  that  great  total  of  debt  service  that  we  now 
carry  in  the  budget  on  account  of  that  debt,  we  shall  make  available 
for  ourselves  a  sufficient  borrowing  margin  to  permit  the  city 


PORT  AND  TERMINALS  237 

to  municipalize  that  waterfront  and  other  sections  of  the  water- 
front of  the  city  and  to  create  those  combined  rail  and  water 
terminals  that  we  project  for  the  future,  but  it  will  have  to  await 
the  development  of  those  resources. 

For  the  general  demands  of  commerce,  irrespective  of  particular 
local  necessities,  the  city  has  been  endeavoring  to  formulate  these 
plans  and  begin  these  works ;  but  there  is  a  particular  reason — or 
rather  there  are  two  particular  reasons — why  the  city  must  meet 
the  situation  now  at  two  or  three  points  in  the  port  without  waiting 
much  longer,  and  why  it  must  provide  more  waterfront  facilities 
for  commerce.  One  of  those  reasons  is  the  opening  of  the  Panama 
Canal,  with  the  new  commerce  that  this  will  bring  into  this  port; 
the  other  is  the  opening  of  the  new  barge  canal,  with  all  that  that 
will  mean  in  added  commerce  to  the  port.  Every  day  the  commis- 
sioner of  docks  receives  applications  for  pier  leases  or  for  space 
along  the  waterfront,  that  he  is  not  able  to  meet  or  grant  because 
the  city  has  not  the  piers  to  lease,  and  it  has  not  the  money  to 
permit  of  the  construction  of  the  new  piers.  We  must  go  forward 
in  the  development  of  those  facilities  this  year  and  next  year,  or 
this  city  will  find  itself  without  the  facilities  to  serve  commerce 
when  the  commerce  presents  itself,  and  as  a  result  the  commerce 
that  properly  belongs  to  the  port  of  New  York  will  pass  elsewhere 
to  cities  which  are  developing  these  facilities  and  meeting  the 
situation  as  it  arises. 

During  last  year  the  dock  department  constructed  of  general 
piers  134,000  square  feet  as  against  59,000  in  1913.  That  means 
that  the  board  of  estimate  provided  for  the  dock  commissioner 
funds  to  build  these  piers,  appreciating  that  the  time  had  come 
when  the  city  had  to  add  to  its  facilities.  I  am  very  glad  to  be 
able  to  say  that  this  morning  at  a  meeting  of  the  corporate  stock 
budget  committee  approval  was  given  for  the  construction  of  three 
great  new  piers  in  the  South  Brooklyn  region  just  north  of  the 
Thirty-ninth  street  ferry,  the  construction  of  piers  29,  30  and  35, 
at  a  total  cost  to  the  city  of  $1,269,000;  but  before  the  dock 
commissioner  asked  those  funds  and  before  the  budget  committee 
and  the  sinking  fund  granted  them  to-day,  the  commissioner  had 
in  his  hands  offers  from  three  companies  for  the  leasing  of  these 
piers  on  terms  that  will  make  not  only  the  piers  but  the  cost  of  the 


238  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

dredging  work  in  the  slips  between  them,  the  cost  of  the  land  on 
which  the  piers  are  built,  the  cost  of  the  crib  and  wall  work  neces- 
sary to  support  the  bulkhead,  all  self-sustaining  upon  the  basis 
of  the  cost  to  the  city  of  the  funds  it  borrowed  with  which  to  buy 
the  land  and  which  it  will  borrow  to  construct  the  piers.  Now 
there,  by  this  morning's  work,  there  were  furnished  to  the  com- 
merce of  this  city  facilities  to  serve  two  great  steamship  companies 
and  one  great  industrial  enterprise  of  the  city ;  and  the  city  will  not 
impair  its  borrowing  margin  by  the  construction  of  these  piers, 
because  its  investment  under  the  terms  of  the  constitutional 
amendment  of  three  years  ago  will  become  self-sustaining  and 
exempt  from  computation  in  the  total  of  the  municipal  debt. 

You  have  all  heard  of  the  West  Side  improvement,  as  it  is  called. 
That  matter  first  came  before  the  board  of  estimate  in  1910  in  the 
form  of  a  demand  from  the  people  living  along  Tenth  and  Eleventh 
avenues  on  the  West  Side  for  protection  against  the  danger  that 
threatened  them  by  reason  of  the  operation  of  the  New  York 
Central  trains  along  the  surface  of  the  city's  streets.  The  matter 
first  came  to  us  in  that  form,  but  it  had  been  in  the  committee 
only  a  very  short  time  when  everybody  appreciated  that  it  was  not 
merely  a  matter  of  giving  protection  to  the  lives  and  persons  of  the 
citizens  of  the  West  Side,  necessary  as  that  is,  but  that  it  involved 
a  great  and  fundamental  question  of  traffic  and  the  development 
of  the  port. 

The  New  York  Central  Railway  is  the  only  eastern  trunk  line 
that  carries  freight  into  Manhattan  Island.  By  reason  of  the  fact 
that  it  does,  and  that  it  can  carry  that  freight  down  to  the  lower 
part  of  Manhattan  Island,  it  in  very  large  measure  fixes  and  deter- 
mines the  freight  rates  to  the  city  of  New  York.  Had  it  not  been 
for  that  fact,  in  the  days  before  we  had  the  strict  regulation  of  rates 
by  the  inter-state  commerce  commission  that  we  have  to-day,  as 
the  other  eastern  trunk  lines  had  their  termini  on  the  Jersey 
waterfront,  we  should  have  found  that  shippers  and  consignees 
in  Manhattan  Island  would  themselves  have  had  to  pay  the  cost 
of  lightering  freight  from  the  Jersey  waterfront  over  to  the  city 
of  New  York ;  but  because  the  New  York  Central  had  its  terminus 
on  Manhattan  Island  and  could  charge  a  flat  freight  rate  into 
Manhattan  Island  over  its  own  rails,  the  other  roads  with  termini 


PORT  AND  TERMINALS  239 

in  Jersey  were  compelled  to  charge  a  through  freight  rate  for 
delivery  on  Manhattan  Island,  and  they  bore  and  still  bear  to-day 
the  cost  of  lightering  the  freight  across.  It  has,  therefore,  been 
a  great  commercial  advantage  to  New  York  to  have  the  New  York 
Central  with  its  terminus  on  Manhattan, 

When  we  came  to  a  consideration  of  that  West  Side  question 
there  were  some  who  advocated  cutting  the  rails  of  the  New  York 
Central  up  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Spuyten  Duyvil  ship  canal. 
There  were  some  who  argued  that  the  railroad  should  be  permitted 
to  operate  all  the  way  to  its  present  southerly  terminus.  It  seemed 
quite  obvious  to  the  committee  that  to  cut  the  railroad's  operation, 
even  if  we  could  do  so  under  the  law,  at  the  northern  end  of  Man- 
hattan Island,  would  be  to  take  from  the  people  of  Manhattan 
the  peculiar  advantage  that  they  have  in  their  relations  with  the 
other  trunk  lines  of  the  east;  and  so  we  determined  that  any 
adjustment  of  that  question  must  have  as  one  of  its  features  a 
continuation  of  the  operation  of  the  New  York  Central  Railroad 
down  into  the  heart  of  Manhattan  Island. 

The  railroad  now  runs  along  the  waterfront  through  Fort 
Washington  Park,  again  along  the  waterfront  on  privately  owned 
land,  and  then  along  Riverside  Park  on  a  strip  of  land  of  which  the 
railroad  claims  the  ownership  and  of  which  it  undoubtedly  has 
possession.  Then  after  it  leaves  its  Fifty-ninth  street  yard  it  runs 
along  the  surface  of  Eleventh  avenue  to  its  Thirtieth  street  yard, 
and  then  along  the  surface  of  Tenth  avenue  to  West  street,  and  so 
on  down  until  it  branches  eastward  to  the  St.  John's  yard.  Where 
the  road  runs  along  West  street  it  is  practically  on  the  waterfront. 
Any  settlement  with  that  railroad,  in  the  opinion  of  the  committee, 
should  comprehend  a  reservation  to  the  city  of  the  right  in  the 
future  to  establish  along  that  waterfront  a  terminal  into  which  the 
roads  that  now  have  their  termini  on  the  Jersey  waterfront  would 
be  privileged  to  enter.  In  other  words,  we  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  a  settlement  with  the  New  York  Central  ought  not  to  foreclose 
the  city  of  New  York  from  establishing  in  the  future  along  its 
westerly  waterfront  a  joint  terminal  into  which  all  the  railroads 
of  the  east  might  enter  as  operators,  if  they  saw  fit,  and  if  the  city 
could  negotiate  with  them  satisfactory  terms  of  lease.  That  was 
one  of  the  fundamental  propositions  that  the  committee  laid 
down  to  guide  it. 


240  THE  GOVERNMENT  OP  NEW   YORK   CITY 

In  dealing  therefore  with  the  question  of  the  New  York  Central 
we  had  to  consider  its  situation  and  the  situation  of  the  Jersey 
roads  as  well.  We  went  to  the  Jersey  roads  and  asked  them  if  they 
would  be  prepared  to  come  into  a  joint  terminal  of  that  kind,  and 
without  one  single  exception  those  roads  answered  that  they  would 
not  be  willing  to  do  so  and  that  they  would  not  care  to  have  reserved 
for  them  any  privileges  in  such  a  terminal.  That  answer  made  it 
practically  impossible  for  the  city  to  undertake  the  construction 
of  that  joint  terminal,  and  yet  we  felt  that  to  establish  the  New 
York  Central  on  the  waterfront  in  any  way  that  would  foreclose 
us  in  the  future  from  negotiating  an  arrangement  when  the  roads 
might  see  fit  to  come  in  would  be  highly  inadvisable.  For  that 
reason,  in  our  negotiations  with  the  New  York  Central  we  decided 
against  the  building  of  an  elevated  railroad  along  West  street  and 
determined  to  let  it  go  into  a  subway  of  its  own  construction  under 
Washington  street,  reserving  the  waterfront  of  West  street  free  and 
clear  for  any  development  that  the  future  might  indicate  as 
advisable. 

That  was  one  feature  of  the  tentative  agreement  reached  with 
the  New  York  Central  two  years  ago.  The  other  features  do  not 
so  much  affect  the  terminal  facilities  and  the  commerce  of  the 
port  as  they  do  the  beauty  of  the  city's  waterfront  and  the  uses  of 
its  public  parks.  To  bring  you  down  to  date  on  these  negotiations 
with  the  New  York  Central  let  me  say  to  you  that  the  commissioner 
of  docks  has  been  in  constant  negotiation  with  the  company  since 
the  inception  of  the  present  city  administration,  and  that  he  has 
negotiated  a  tentative  arrangement.  I  might,  I  think,  put  it  more 
correctly  by  saying  that  he  has  laid  down  a  tentative  plan,  which 
is  rather  his  plan  than  an  arrangement  reached  with  the  company, 
and  that  plan  was  sent  forward  on  the  27th  of  January  last  to  the 
terminal  committee  of  the  board  of  estimate,  which  consists  of  the 
comptroller  as  chairman,  the  president  of  the  board  of  aldermen,  and 
the  presidents  of  the  boroughs  of  Manhattan  and  Brooklyn.  That 
committee  now  has  the  dock  commissioner's  tentative  plan  under 
consideration,  and  as  soon  as  the  committee  reports  to  the  board 
of  estimate,  we  shall  be  ready  to  hold  public  hearings,  to  invite 
public  criticism  and  suggestions,  and  to  evolve  out  of  those  hearings 
and  suggestions  a  final  plan  which  can  be  matured  into  a  contract 


PORT  AND  TERMINALS  241 

between  the  New  York  Central  Company  and  the  city  of  New 
York.  The  details  of  that  plan  will  appear  in  the  report  and  will 
be  discussed  in  the  hearings.  But  let  me  say  to  you  generally 
that  the  plan  will  contemplate  putting  the  railroad  company  under- 
ground through  Fort  Washington  Park,  underground  either  through 
Riverside  Park  or  under  the  upland  behind  Riverside  Park,  on  an 
elevated  structure  from  Fifty-ninth  street  south  to  Thirtieth 
street,  and  underground  from  Thirtieth  street  to  the  southerly 
terminus  of  the  company's  operation,  wherever  that  may  ulti- 
mately be  located.  It  will  also  contemplate  holding  open,  for  such 
future  development  as  may  be  agreed  upon  between  the  city  and 
the  other  trunk-line  railroads,  the  city's  waterfront  along  West 
street,  and  also  holding  open  for  access  for  the  other  railroads  the 
waterfront  between  Thirtieth  street  and  Fifty-ninth  street,  where 
the  long  piers  are  now  being  built. 

That  is,  I  am  afraid,  a  rough  and  incomplete  statement  of  the 
negotiations  between  the  New  York  Central  and  the  city  of  New 
York,  but  it  at  least  brings  you  down  in  general  terms  to  the 
present-day  situation ;  and  I  think  I  can  say  that  if  the  committee 
will  report,  as  I  have  no  doubt  it  will  and  can,  within  the  next  two 
or  three  weeks,  the  city  ought  to  be  able  to  reach  a  final  adjust- 
ment with  the  New  York  Central  Company  before  the  first  of 
January  next,  and  the  construction  work  putting  that  railroad 
underground  ought  to  be  begun  not  later  than  the  spring  of  next 
year.  It  depends,  of  course,  on  the  speed  with  which  the  commit- 
tee acts  and  on  the  difficulties  which  the  railroad  may  throw  in 
the  way,  or  the  objections  which  it  may  make  to  the  plan  that  the 
dock  commissioner  has  submitted. 

In  this  connection  I  should  tell  you  of  the  plans  that  the  city 
has  formulated  for  articulating  all  the  developments  of  the  port 
as  they  proceed  at  the  various  points.  One  of  the  greatest  diffi- 
culties that  the  city  has  suffered  from  in  the  past  has  been  the  fact 
that  a  projected  improvement  would  be  undertaken,  we  will  say, 
somewhere  on  the  Brooklyn  waterfront  and  carried  forward  with- 
out any  relation  to  or  consideration  of  improvements  projected 
at  other  points  in  the  harbor.  We  recognized  last  year  that  if  the 
city  is  to  develop  the  port  as  a  whole,  if  it  is  to  get  the  maximum 
of  usefulness  from  its  waterfront,  if  commerce  is  to  be  conserved 


242  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK   CITY 

in  the  most  effective  manner,  there  ought  to  be  a  comprehensive 
plan  for  the  whole  port  laid  down  as  soon  as  possible  and  having 
as  a  feature  a  progress  scheme  of  improvement  indicating  the 
points  at  which  improvements  should  be  begun  first,  the  order  in 
which  improvements  should  be  carried  out,  and  the  relation  of  each 
to  the  others.  In  order  to  develop  'that  kind  of  plan,  and  because 
no  member  of  the  board  of  estimate  can  give  the  time  and  the 
attention  necessary  to  the  detailed  development  of  such  a  scheme, 
on  the  suggestion  of  the  merchants'  association  I  appointed  last 
year  an  advisory  commission  on  the  development  of  a  port  plan. 
That  commission  is  composed  of  citizens.  On  it  are  represented  the 
chamber  of  commerce,  the  merchants'  association  and  the  railroads, 
and  it  is  charged  with  the  duty  of  advising  and  co-operating  with 
the  terminal  committee  of  the  board  of  estimate  in  the  formulation 
of  this  comprehensive  port  plan  for  New  York.  The  commission 
has  recommended  the  appointment  of  three  engineers — or  rather 
of  three  experts,  two  engineers  and  a  railroad  man — as  technical 
advisers.  These  three  gentlemen,  when  their  appointment  has 
been  finally  approved  and  their  staff  organized,  will  set  about  a 
detailed  examination  of  the  traffic  conditions  in  the  port  of  New 
York,  of  the  amount  of  traffic  from  one  part  of  the  port  to  another, 
of  the  existing  terminal  and  transportation  facilities,  and  the 
relation  of  all  these  to  each  other;  and  when  they  have  collected 
their  data  they  will  come  back  to  the  citizens'  commission  and  to 
the  official  committee  of  the  board  of  estimate  with  a  comprehen- 
sive plan  for  the  development  of  the  port,  including  this  New  York 
Central  adjustment,  although  that  will  go  on  irrespective  of  the 
work  of  these  experts  in  the  meantime,  including  the  ultimate 
terminal  facilities  to  be  created  on  the  west  side  of  Manhattan 
Island,  including  the  terminal  facilities  of  the  Jersey  roads,  includ- 
ing every  part  of  the  waterfront  of  the  city  of  New  York ;  and  then 
when  we  have  that  plan  we  shall  have  something  that  we  can  steer 
by,  we  shall  have  a  progress  scheme,  and  we  shall  be  able  to  state 
and  to  understand  just  how  much  must  be  appropriated  each  year 
in  order  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  commerce  of  this  port. 

Another  development,  and  perhaps  the  most  important  of  all 
the  new  developments  which  will  be  carried  on  while  that  commit- 
tee and  commission  are  making  their  study,  is  the  construction 


PORT  AND   TERMINALS  243 

by  the  city  of  a  great  terminal  freight  railway  along  the  waterfront 
of  South  Brooklyn.  That  waterfront  offered  to  us  unequalled 
opportunities  for  development,  for  the  reason  that  a  great  part 
of  it  had  never  been  developed  in  any  way,  and  for  the  reason 
that  the  remainder  where  it  had  been  developed  was  developed 
by  the  construction  of  cheap  buildings  whose  demolition  would  not 
involve  heavy  damages. 

In  1911  Commissioner  Tomkins,  Mayor  Gaynor's  dock  commis- 
sioner, presented  to  the  board  of  estimate  a  tentative  scheme  for 
the  acquisition  of  the  Bush  Company's  freight  railroad  franchise 
and  the  construction  of  some  small  extensions  of  that  railroad 
by  the  city.  It  was  suggested  that  the  railroad,  when  acquired 
and  extended,  should  be  operated  by  Mr.  Bush  on  a  basis  of  rental 
that  would  make  the  city's  investment  self-sustaining.  We  took 
that  plan  and  considered  it.  While  it  was  under  consideration 
the  dock  commissioner  filed  a  more  comprehensive  plan  for  a 
railroad  all  the  way  from  the  Brooklyn  Bridge  down  to  Sixty-fifth 
street.  But  this  plan  disregarded  existing  developments.  It 
laid  the  railroad  out  in  a  straight  line  cutting  through  great  ware- 
houses out  near  Atlantic  avenue  and  through  existing  piers.  If 
constructed  according  to  that  plan  there  would  have  been  untold 
millions  of  damage  to  private  property.  The  committee  of  the 
board  of  estimate  took  that  plan,  considered  it,  revamped  it  and 
laid  down  finally  in  1913,  the  last  year  of  Mayor  Gaynor's  adminis- 
tration, a  plan  for  a  terminal  railroad.  It  began  at  the  Brooklyn 
Bridge,  ran  down  Furman  street,  across  Atlantic  avenue,  ran 
down  through  existing  intervening  streets  to  the  Erie  Basin 
district,  turning  in  an  eastward  direction  at  a  right  angle,  ran 
behind  the  barge  canal  terminal  established  by  the  state,  across 
the  Gowanus  canal,  turned  again  in  a  southerly  direction,  passing 
immediately  behind  the  existing  docks  in  that  section,  and  finally 
joined  the  rails  of  the  Bush  Company's  franchise  immediately 
south  of  Thirty-fourth  street,  continuing  over  those  rails  to 
Sixty-fifth  street,  where  it  joined  the  rails  of  the  Long  Island 
system. 

That  wras  the  terminal  railroad  plan  laid  down  by  the  terminal 
committee  of  the  Board  of  Estimate  in  1913,  covering  five  and  a 
half  lineal  miles  of  railroad.  As  at  first  laid  out  it  was  planned  to 


244  THE  GOVERNMENT  OP  NEW   YORK   ClTY 

be  a  surface  road.  I  should  say  also  that  during  the  last  year  of 
Mayor  Gaynor's  administration  we  initiated  the  improvement  by 
providing  for  the  acquisition  of  a  terminal  yard  for  that  railroad 
immediately  behind  the  state  barge  canal  terminal  in  the  Erie 
Basin  district;  but  before  we  did  that,  before  in  fact  we  took  one 
single  final  step  toward  the  adoption  of  the  enterprise,  we  Sought 
for  an  operator.  There  were  various  plans  that  the  city  might 
have  followed.  It  might  have  invited  Mr.  Bush  or  his  company 
to  become  the  operator  of  that  railroad,  built  with  city  money. 
But  we  came  to  the  conclusion  that  to  place  a  great  municipal 
enterprise  of  that  kind  in  the  hands  of  any  individual,  however 
efficient,  however  public-spirited  he  might  be,  would  be  merely 
creating  the  incentive  for  discrimination  by  that  operator  in 
favor  of  his  own  properties  as  against  the  properties  of  others 
along  the  line  of  the  railroad.  We  might  have  considered  the 
organization  of  some  new  corporation  by  private  interests  for  the 
operation  of  the  road,  but  we  decided  against  that  for  the  same 
reason.  We  might  have  placed  the  railroad  in  the  hands  of  any 
one  of  the  existing  railroad  companies,  but  the  committee  con- 
cluded that  to  do  that  would  create  in  that  railroad  an  incentive 
for  discrimination  not  only  possibly  against  territory  along  the 
line,  with  which  territory  at  some  other  point  of  that  railroad 
system  might  be  competing,  but  also  might  give  to  such  railroad 
operator  a  monopolistic  advantage.  And  so  after  a  great  deal  of 
discussion  and  consideration  we  finally  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  only  way  in  which  to  protect  the  interests  of  all  the  future 
owners  of  industries,  of  warehouses,  of  commercial  enterprises 
along  that  road,  and  also  to  secure  equal  opportunity  for  all  the 
railroads  to  seek  business,  was  to  procure  co-operative  action  by 
all  the  trunk  line  railroads  coming  into  the  port  of  New  York  and 
to  induce  them  to  become  the  joint  operators  of  this  municipal 
railroad. 

No  such  undertaking  had  ever  been  attempted  in  the  city  of 
New  York  before.  There  has  never  been  an  instance  of  complete 
co-operation  by  the  railroads  coming  into  this  port  in  their  relations 
with  the  city.  We  invited  them  to  come  into  conference,  and  at 
a  meeting  held  in  the  chamber  of  commerce  a  committee  was 
appointed  by  the  railroads  to  negotiate  with  the  city  of  New  York. 


PORT  AND   TERMINALS  245 

After  several  months  of  negotiation  the  committee  and  the  termi- 
nal committee  of  the  board  of  estimate  came  into  agreement. 
These  railroads  agreed  to  organize  a  joint  terminal  operating 
company  to  operate  this  municipal  freight  railroad  when  con- 
structed and  to  pay  to  the  city  of  New  York  a  rental  for  the  line 
sufficient  to  make  the  trunk  line  entirely  self-sustaining  on  the 
basis  of  the  city's  investment  in  the  enterprise  both  for  land 
acquisition  and  for  construction.  That  was  where  the  matter 
rested  in  1913.  In  order  to  secure  the  right  for  the  railroads  to 
organize  a  joint  operating  company  of  that  kind  it  was  necessary 
for  us  to  secure  an  amendment  of  the  law,  because  the  existing 
statutes  forbid  railroad  companies  to  own  the  stocks  or  bonds  of 
terminal  operating  companies,  a  prohibition  that  was  written 
into  the  law  in  order  to  prevent  railroads  from  obtaining  a  control 
of  the  state's  waterfront.  We  went  to  the  legislature  of  1913  and 
asked  for  a  bill.  The  legislature  gave  us  the  bill,  but  it  was  vetoed 
by  Governor  Sulzer,  under  what  I  believe  to  have  been  a  misappre- 
hension. The  legislature  of  1914  again  gave  us  a  bill  and  it  was 
vetoed  by  Governor  Glynn,  under  what  I  again  believe  to  have 
been  a  misapprehension,  each  governor  feeling  that  the  statute 
was  so  drawn  as  possibly  to  give  the  railroads  an  opportunity 
of  getting  control  of  the  waterfront,  not  in  this  particular  instance, 
but  at  other  points  through  the  state.  It  is  not  necessary  to  argue 
the  question  as  to  whether  the  governor  was  right  or  not.  We 
went  back  to  the  legislature  this  year  with  a  different  bill  meeting 
the  objection  that  had  been  made  by  Governor  Sulzer  and  Gover- 
nor Glynn,  meeting  all  the  objections  that  had  been  made  by  the 
state  canal  interests,  meeting  the  objections  that  had  been  made  by 
the  maritime  exchange  and  the  other  maritime  interests  of  this 
city.  This  bill  submitted  this  year  has  been  passed  by  both 
houses  of  the  legislature,  was  signed  by  me  a  few  days  ago,  and  is 
now  before  Governor  Whitman  awaiting  his  action.  If  the  gov- 
ernor signs  that  bill,  as  I  have  confidence  he  will,  the  city  of  New 
York  will  be  able  to  get  as  the  operator  of  this  enterprise  all  the 
trunk-line  railroads  of  the  east.  It  will  be  able  to  get  them  on  a 
basis  that  will  make  this  enterprise  as  to  the  main  trunk  line 
wholly  self-sustaining  from  the  very  moment  of  first  operation. 
If  that  can  be  done  it  will  mean  that  the  whole  waterfront  Q£ 


246  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK    CITY 

South  Brooklyn  from  the  Brooklyn  Bridge  to  Sixty-fifth  street 
will  be  put  into  direct  rail  touch  with  the  entire  territory  of  the 
United  States.  It  will  mean  that  every  man  who  locates  a  factory 
or  a  warehouse  or  a  business  enterprise  along  that  line  will  have 
right  at  his  door  the  service  of  every  railroad  of  the  United  States, 
and  through  a  company  in  which  every  one  of  these  railroads  is 
equally  represented  and  interested;  and  it  will  mean  that  the 
city  of  New  York  will  be  able  to  secure  exemption  from  computa- 
tion in, its  debt  for  the  amount  of  its  investment  in  this  enterprise, 
and  will  be  able  to  take  and  use  those  funds  for  the  development 
of  some  other  part  of  the  port. 

Another  thing  that  has  been  done  by  this  administration  in 
connection  with  the  development  of  that  railroad  is  the  change 
of  the  plan  from  a  surface  freight  line  to  an  elevated  freight  line. 
We  feared  that  a  surface  freight  line  might  create  along  the  Brook- 
lyn waterfront  the  same  condition  of  which  the  West  Side  citizens 
complain  in  Manhattan  to-day,  and  we  determined  that  no  matter 
what  the  character  of  the  property  in  South  Brooklyn  to-day,  we 
would  not  discount  the  future  and  establish  a  surface  freight 
railroad  in  that  district.  If  the  project  is  carried  out  as  now 
planned  the  railroad  will  be  elevated  and  the  freight  can  be  moved 
from  the  Brooklyn  Bridge  to  Sixty-fifth  street  with  a  rapidity  that 
has  never  been  known  at  any  point  in  the  harbor  of  New  York  up 
to  the  present  time. 

The  third  great  constructive  enterprise  which  is  planned  by  this 
administration  is  the  building  of  a  huge  dry  dock  somewhere  along 
the  Brooklyn  waterfront.  There  is  no  dry  dock  in  this  port  to-day 
that  will  accommodate  a  ship  of  more  than  600  feet  in  length. 
If  New  York  is  to  remain  the  greatest  port  of  the  world,  surely 
it  should  have  here  accommodations  to  dock  the  largest  ships  that 
come  into  the  port  as  well  as  the  small  ships.  The  dock  commis- 
sioner has  carried  his  negotiations  already  far  enough  to  know  that 
we  could  make  that  dry  dock  self-supporting  from  the  day  that  it 
was  opened,  that  we  could  get  a  guarantee  of  sufficient  annual 
payments  in  fees  and  rentals  and  in  reserve  privileges  to  make  it 
self-sustaining.  We  propose  to  build  it  somewhere  along  the 
Brooklyn  waterfront  just  as  soon  as  the  board  of  estimate  can 
find  the  funds  to  devote  to  it.  I  believe  that  if  the  port  of  New 


PORT  AND   TERMINALS  247 

York  is  to  measure  in  its  facilities  up  to  the  size  of  its  commerce 
this  administration  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  close  without  the 
inception  of  the  construction  of  that  great  facility  for  the  port. 

A  review  of  the  physical  undertakings  of  the  dock  department 
would  not  be  complete  if  I  did  not  at  least  allude  to  the  construc- 
tion of  the  thousand-foot  piers  in  the  Forty-sixth  street  region. 
While  that  was  an  undertaking  not  initiated  during  this  adminis- 
tration, the  construction  work  will  be  carried  on  under  this 
administration.  Back  in  1912,  I  think  it  was,  we  began  to  consider 
this  matter,  when  we  found  that  the  War  Department  was  very 
reluctant  to  consent  even  to  a  temporary  extension  of  the  pier- 
head line  in  the  Hudson  River.  We  found  that  with  a  legal  right 
only  to  a  900-foot  pier  in  the  Chelsea  district  we  already  had  ships 
coming  into  the  harbor  which  could  not  be  docked  at  those  piers 
without  projecting  out  into  the  river.  After  a  great  deal  of 
negotiation  we  came  to  an  agreement  with  the  Secretary  of  War 
that  the  War  Department  would  consent  to  a  temporary  exten- 
sion of  the  pier-head  line,  provided  that  the  city  of  New  York 
would  agree  to  deal  with  this  problem  once  and  for  all  and  would 
provide  at  some  other  point  in  the  harbor  piers  long  enough  to 
accommodate  the  longest  transatlantic  liners  coming  to  the  port 
or  reasonably  to  be  expected.  We  finally  selected  the  Forty-sixth 
street  district.  The  city  proceeded  to  acquire  the  land.  Title 
has  now  been  vested.  We  proceeded  to  develop  the  physical 
plans  for  the  construction  of  the  piers.  These  have  now  been 
completed.  To-day  the  coffer  dam  is  complete,  and  the  work 
of  pumping  behind  the  coffer  dam  has  been  begun.  We  are  well 
under  way  toward  the  construction  of  the  first  of  those  great 
piers.  The  piers  will  be  1050  feet  in  length  and  will  be  long  enough 
to  accommodate  any  ship  either  now  afloat  or  projected,  or, 
according  to  the  best  naval  experts,  reasonably  to  be  expected  in 
the  port  of  New  York  during  the  next  twenty  or  thirty  years.  The 
city  plans  the  construction  of  three  or  four  docks  of  1050  feet  in 
length  in  that  district,  and  when  that  work  has  been  carried  to 
completion  I  believe  that  the  city  will  have  solved  for  good  the 
problem  of  facilities  for  the  greatest  transatlantic  liners  that  come 
into  the  port. 

These  are  the  principal  constructive  works  that  the  city  has 


248  THE -GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

undertaken  for  the  development  of  its  marine  and  rail  terminal 
facilities.  In  connection  with  these  facilities  we  are  going  to  have 
to  lay  out  and  construct  terminal  markets.  We  tried  this  year  to 
procure  from  the  legislature  the  machinery  for  administering 
our  present  markets  and  for  developing  a  real  market  plan  for  the 
city  of  New  York.  We  asked  the  legislature  to  enact  a  bill  creating 
a  department  of  markets  and  concentrating  in  that  department 
jurisdiction  over  all  existing  markets,  which  is  now  scattered  among 
the  finance  department  and  the  borough  presidents,  and  we  asked 
to  have  that  department  vested  with  the  power  to  develop  and 
present  to  the  board  of  estimate  a  comprehensive  market  plan. 
That  market  plan  must  be  developed  in  connection  with  the  plans 
for  terminals  and  for  the  rail  facilities  and  the  marine  facilities  of 
the  city.  The  legislature,  however,  following  a  course  which  it 
seemed  to  have  established  for  itself  this  year,  disregarded  the 
recommendations  of  the  government  of  the  city,  and  at  the  instance 
of  the  private  interests  opposed  to  the  establishment  of  municipal 
markets  of  any  kind,  killed  that  bill.  We  are  now  compelled  to 
carry  on  the  administration  of  our  public  markets  with  the  divided 
jurisdiction  of  to-day — maintenance  and  construction  being  in 
the  borough  presidents,  financial  and  rate  control  being  with  the 
comptroller.  No  one  is  satisfied  with  the  present  arrangement. 
The  comptroller  does  not  want  the  jurisdiction  he  has ;  the  borough 
presidents  do  not  care  for  and  do  not  need  the  jurisdiction  that 
they  have.  Neither  is  effective,  but  we  must  go  on  the  best 
we  can  under  the  existing  plan,  developing  our  scheme  through 
the  market  committee  of  the  board  of  estimate,  constructing 
through  the  offices  of  the  borough  presidents  and  controlling 
through  the  finance  department. 

I  believe  that  the  city  of  New  York  will  ultimately  establish 
a  series  of  wholesale  municipal  terminal  markets,  and  through  their 
establishment  will  cheapen  the  cost  of  the  introduction  of  food 
products  into  the  city  of  New  York  and  their  distribution  to  the 
consumers.  We  have  not  yet  come  to  the  development  of  the 
details  of  that  plan,  but  it  will  have  to  be  laid  down  in  connection 
with  and  closely  coordinated  with  the  plans  for  the  development 
of  the  terminals  of  the  port. 

These  are  our  plans  and  the  work  that  we  have  under  way, 


PORT  AND   TERMINALS  249 

Its  further  extension  will  depend  largely  on  the  financial  resources 
which  we  shall  be  able  to  command  during  the  remaining  years  of 
this  administration.  I  feel  that  the  city  is  in  a  position  to  settle 
the  West  Side  problem,  to  construct  the  South  Brooklyn  terminal 
railroad,  to  construct  the  dry  dock,  to  finish  the  long  piers;  but 
how  much  farther  it  can  go,  how  much  farther  toward  the  develop- 
ment of  the  terminal  facilities  or  the  market  facilities,  will  depend 
on  the  husbanding  of  our  resources  in  other  directions.  There  is 
no  more  important  physical  work  that  the  city  has  to  do  than  this 
development  of  its  port,  and  I  believe  that  there  is  none  in  which 
the  citizens  of  the  city  have  a  more  direct  interest. 


DISCUSSION   OF  TRANSPORTATION,  PORT   AND 
TERMINAL  FACILITIES 

RICHARD  C.  HARRISON,  First  Deputy  Commissioner  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Docks  and  Ferries: 

You  may  be  interested  in  connection -with  this  wonderful  port  of  ours 
to  know  a  little  about  the  way  it  is  administered.  We  have  an  army 
of.  approximately  two  thousand  men  employed  in  the  department  of 
docks  and  ferries  and  we  are  spending  this  year  only  a  shade  under  two 
million  dollars  to  administer  the  port  of  New  York. 

What  are  we  doing  with  it?  First  of  all,  from  what  the  mayor  has 
said,  it  must  be  clear  to  you  that  the  department  of  docks  and  ferries  is 
primarily  a  business  department.  We  differ  much  from  most  of  the 
city  departments  in  that  fact.  We  are  practically  dealing  with  cus- 
tomers of  the  city,  our  merchants,  our  maritime  interests,  those  who 
deal  in  imports  and  exports.  They  come  to  us  and  ask  us  for  our  wares, 
that  is,  the  piers,  the  bulkheads,  the  terminal  facilities,  all  those  things 
which  the  city  has  provided  to  take  care  of  these  great  interests. 

Fortunately,  through  a  wise  policy — strangely  wise  in  view  of  some 
other  things  which  the  city  of  New  York  did  in  the  old  days, — as  long  ago 
as  1870,  when  the  department  of  docks  and  ferries  was  started,  the  city 
began  to  acquire  its  waterfront.  Since  that  time  we  have  acquired  and  we 
now  own  some  two  hundred  and  thirty -two  piers,  ranging  from  the  wonder- 
ful structures  with  which  you  are  all  familiar  at  Chelsea,  where  the  big 
liners  come  in,  down  to  comparatively  small  but  relatively  no  less  impor- 
tant piers  where  we  handle  our  building  materials  and  those  heavy,  perhaps 
uninteresting  objects  which  go  so  much  to  make  up  the  commercial  pros- 
perity of  the  city.  A  great  many  of  these  piers,  approximately  two- 
thirds  I  should  say  offhand,  are  leased.  The  city  charter  provides  that 
the  sinking  fund  commission,  which  is  made  up  of  the  mayor,  the 
comptroller,  the  president  of  the  board  of  aldermen,  the  city  chamber- 
lain and  the  chairman  of  the  finance  committee  of  the  board  of  aldermen, 
may  lease  the  piers  for  a  term  of  ten  years  with  a  maximum  of  four 
renewals,  bringing  it  up  to  a  total  of  fifty  years.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  city  has  leased  few  of  its  piers  for  a  longer  period  than  thirty  years, 
but  even  with  that  condition  existing,  we  find  at  the  present  time  the 
rather  unfortunate  condition  of  a  large  portion  of  our  most  valuable 
waterfront  here  in  Manhattan  being  tied  up  under  leases  which  still 
have  a  substantial  term  to  run  and  which  make  difficult  certain  readjust- 
ments in  many  instances  desirable  and  necessary. 

(250) 


PORT  AND    TERMINALS  251 

In  addition  to  these  leased  piers,  we  have  a  large  number  of  what  we 
call  open  piers.  These  piers  are  perhaps  not  so  imposing  as  the  Chelsea 
piers.  They  are  piers  which  most  of  us  do  not  see  often;  but  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  if  it  were  not  for  them,  the  city  of  New  York  would  be  in 
a  bad  way;  for  they  are  piers  where  anyone  can  bring  his  boat,  tie  up, 
unload  his  cargo,  and  load  again  at  nominal  rates  fixed  by  the  legislature 
of  the  state  of  New  York  for  the  express  purpose  of  encouraging  the  use 
of  the  piers  and  not  for  purposes  of  revenue.  The  average  boat  can  tie 
up  at  one  of  these  piers  at  an  expense  of  only  fifty  cents  a  day,  so  they 
furnish  a  valuable  adjunct  to  the  commercial  prosperity  of  the  entire  port. 

Secondly,  the  department  of  docks  and  ferries  is  a  great  engineering 
and  construction  department.  We  have  a  force  paid  for  out  of  what  is 
known  as  corporate  stock,  that  is,  bonds  on  which  the  city  borrows 
money  for  a  term  of  fifty  years  for  permanent  improvements.  Approxi- 
mately a  million  dollars  a  year  has  been  devoted  to  keeping  up  in  the 
department  of  docks  and  ferries  a  permanent  construction  force,  that  is, 
engineers  who  shall  draw  plans  for  the  improvement  of  the  waterfront, 
the  building  of  the  great  sea  wall  which  is  practically  completed  around 
Manhattan  Island  at  the  present  time,  the  construction  of  some  of  the 
smaller  pier  work  and  all  those  things  which  go  to  make  up  the  physical 
upbuilding  of  the  port  of  New  York. 

In  addition  to  the  actual  work  done  by  the  department  force,  the 
department  of  docks  and  ferries  is  charged  with  the  important  work  of 
drawing  plans  and  specifications  for  all  the  great  port  work  which  is 
done  under  contract.  The  mayor  alluded  to  one  of  those  important 
works  which  is  going  on  at  the  present  time,  and  just  in  order  to  give  you 
some  little  idea  of  what  the  responsibilities  and  duties  of  our  engineering 
staff  are,  I  will  elaborate  on  it  just  for  a  moment  or  two.  At  Forty- 
sixth  street  in  the  borough  of  Manhattan  a  site  was  selected  for  the  con- 
struction of  the  new  long  passenger  steamship  piers.  It  was  necessary 
at  that  particular  site  to  dig  out  slips  for  the  accommodation  of  steam- 
ships giving  us  a  clear  depth  of  water  of  forty-four  feet.  We  found, 
however,  that  at  a  comparatively  shallow  depth  below  water  level  we 
struck  bed  rock,  and  the  practical  impossibility  of  taking  out  that  rock 
under  water  in  the  wet  made  it  necessary  for  us  to  enter  upon  one  of  the 
greatest  engineering  feats  which  is  going  on  in  the  civilized  world  at  the 
present  time.  We  have  constructed  at  that  point  what  is  known  as  a 
coffer-dam.  A  coffer-dam  perhaps  does  not  mean  much  to  those  of  us 
who  are  not  engineers,  but  reduced  to  its  lowest  terms  it  is  nothing  more 
or  less  than  a  temporary  retaining  wall  to  hold  out  water  so  that  we  can 
get  an  area  back  of  it  dry  and  keep  it  dry  long  enough  to  do  temporary 


252  TH&  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

work.  At  Forty-sixth  street  we  have  constructed  a  huge  wall  built 
of  steel  piles  similar  to  railroad  ties  sixty-eight  feet  in  length,  driving 
them  down  to  bed  rock,  and  we  are  going  to  hold  up  the  entire  weight  of 
the  Hudson  River,  not  for  a  day,  not  for  a  week,  but  for  months  while 
we  keep  an  area  of  approximately  seven  and  a  half  acres  dry  long  enough 
to  blast  out  rock  down  to  a  depth  of  forty-four  feet.  That  work  is  going 
on  at  the  present  time.  We  have  built  our  dam;  we  have  practically 
pumped  it  out.  It  has  reached  a  point  where  it  is  interesting  even  to 
laymen,  and  if  any  of  you  are  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Hudson  River 
and  Forty-sixth  street,  it  would  certainly  pay  you  to  go  there  and  see 
what  is  being  done.  In  looking  at  it,  I  should  like  you  to  realize  that  it 
is  being  done  by  city  engineers,  men  who  are  on  the  payroll,  men  who  are 
your  employes. 

In  addition  to  its  functions  as  a  business  and  as  a  construction  depart- 
ment, the  department  of  docks  and  ferries  is  a  great  supervising  depart- 
ment. Not  only  have  we  responsibility  for  our  own  city-owned  piers, 
but  we  have  general  supervision  and  control  over  all  waterfront  struct- 
ures. If  a  man  owns  a  piece  of  waterfront  property,  he  cannot  improve 
it  until  he  submits  his  plans  and  specifications  to  the  department  of 
docks  and  ferries  for  examination  and  approval.  That  means  that  our 
engineers  have  to  assume  enormous  responsibility  and  that  an  immense 
amount  of  work  must  be  done  in  examining  all  these  private  plans  to  see 
if  they  are  in  proper  form,  and  then  subsequently  in  supervising  in  a 
general  way  the  construction  of  the  structures  that  are  called  for 
by  them. 

In  addition  to  that  particular  feature  of  supervision,  we  have  also 
the  important  supervising  function  of  caring  for  the  waterfront.  For 
example,  we  clean  the  marginal  streets.  Technically  and  legally  such 
streets  are  not  streets  at  all,  although  they  are  paved  and  look  very  much 
like  streets.  Legally  and  actually  they  are  marginal  wharves,  bulkheads, 
built  for  the  primary  purpose  of  handling  cargoes  between  the  city  proper 
and  the  waterfront.  The  most  important  of  these,  and  one  which  you 
have  probably  all  seen,  is  that  important  marginal  street  on  the  west 
side  of  the  borough  of  Manhattan  running  all  the  way  from  the  Battery 
up  to  Fifty-ninth  street.  It  is  a  marginal  way  one  hundred  and  eighty 
feet  in  width  outside  of  West  street.  The  dock  department  has  exclusive 
care  of  that,  the  paving  of  it,  the  cleaning  of  ice  and  snow  from  it,  and  the 
regulation  of  the  handling  of  freight  across  it. 

The  last  important  function  of  this  department  is  an  operating  func- 
tion. We  are  a  department  not  only  of  docks,  but  of  ferries.  The  city 
of  New  York  operates,  as  you  know,  two  important  ferries;  one  from  the 


PORT  AND  TERMINALS  253 

foot  of  Whitehall  street  to  Staten  Island  and  the  other  from  the  foot 
of  South  street  to  South  Brooklyn.  In  this  operation  the  city  uses  nine 
palatial  boats  of  a  type  far  superior  to  anything  that  you  will  find  in  ferry 
service  anywhere  else  in  the  entire  world.  Unfortunately,  for  a  number 
of  years  the  operation  of  the  municipal  ferries  has  been  held  up  as  a 
dreadful  example,  as  the  one  standing  stock  argument  why  municipal 
ownership  of  public  utilities  should  not  be  engaged  in.  This  is  extremely 
unfair.  It  had  a  grain  of  truth  in  it,  or  has  had  in  the  past;  but  at  the 
same  time  it  has  been  entirely  overlooked  that  we  are  operating  a  de  luxe 
service,  a  service  which  no  private  concern  could  think  of  operating. 
We  are  operating  it  at  rates  utterly  inadequate  to  pay  cost  of  operation, 
and  we  are  doing  it  purposely  because  we  feel  that  there  are  certain 
collateral  advantages  in  the  operation  of  ferries  outside  the  direct 
financial  return.  We  feel  that  it  is  important  to  build  up  the  outlying 
sections  of  the  city,  the  borough  of  Richmond,  and  South  Brooklyn,  for 
example,  and  therefore  we  have  been  carrying  passengers  a  five-mile  haul 
for  five  cents.  Recently  we  have  even  brought  that  down  to  two  cents, 
because  you  can  now  ride  to  Staten  Island  and  get  a  transfer  which  will 
take  you  up  town  on  one  of  the  surface  cars  reaching  South  Ferry,  all 
for  a  five-cent  fare,  and  of  that  five  cents  the  city  of  New  York  gets 
two.  The  vehicle  rates  over  the  ferries  have  been  only  a  half  and  some- 
times a  third  of  what  private  companies  have  charged  for  the  same 
accommodations . 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  have  introduced  notable  economies  during 
the  present  administration  in  the  operation  of  these  ferries.  We  found, 
for  example,  that  the  Staten  Island  branch  of  the  municipal  ferries  was 
operating  at  a  deficit  of  $189,000  a  year.  In  the  first  year  of  this  admin- 
istration, we  reduced  that  by  $159,000.  In  1914  we  turned  this  deficit 
into  an  operating  profit  of  $15,000.  That  has  been  brought  about  not  by 
any  reduction  in  service,  for  we  are  giving  precisely  the  same  service 
to-day  that  we  have  always  given.  The  saving  has  been  brought  about 
by  economical  administration.  We  found,  for  example,  that  we  were  burn- 
ing, pea  coal.  Pea  coal  is  a  very  nice  coal  to  burn;  it  is  easy  for  stokers, 
and  it  produces  an  even  type  of  heat;  but  it  is  expensive,  costing  approxi- 
mately four  dollars  a  ton.  Now  we  are  making  our  stokers  work  a  little 
harder,  using  a  type  of  coal  which  to-day  is  costing  us  two  dollars  and 
seventy  cents  a  ton.  We  have  also  made  notable  economies  in  the 
matter  of  repairs.  Instead  of  turning  our  boats  over  to  private  con- 
tractors and  allowing  them  to  make  repairs,  while  the  crew  sit  around  and 
do  nothing,  we  have  compelled  the  crews  of  the  boats  to  make  minor 
adjustments  and  repairs.  In  that  way,  we  have  saved  a  large  amount 
of  money  and  we  expect  to  be  able  to  save  even  more. 


254  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

That,  in  a  brief,  general  way  tells  you  what  the  department  of  docks 
and  ferries  is  doing  to  make  and  keep  New  York  the  greatest  port  in 
the  world. 


EDWARD  M.  BASSETT,  Former  Member  of  the  Public  Service  Com- 
mission, First  District: 

The  city  of  New  York  has  grown  here  because  this  is  a  great  port; 
not  only  that,  but  because  the  port  is  situated  in  the  right  place,  midway 
between  the  ice-bound  harbors  of  the  north  and  those  harbors  further 
south  that  are  too  warm  for  the  safe  handling  of  freight.  It  is  also 
opposite  the  best  grades  leading  across  the  mountains  to  the  great  Mis- 
sissippi valley.  All  these  factors  have  helped  to  make  this  par  excellence 
the  port  of  North  America. 

I  like  to  see  people  name  the  port  as  the  main  feature  of  New  York, 
although  my  own  connection  with  the  city  has  been  more  along  the 
lines  of  rapid  transit,  because  if  the  port  were  not  here  and  if  the  port 
were  not  made  most  useful,  there  would  not  be  much  need  of  rapid  transit 
or  many  other  of  the  utilities  that  go  to  make  a  convenient  and  helpful 
city.  If  this  city  had  a  population  of  only  three  hundred  thousand,  it 
could  get  along  very  well  with  surface  cars,  but  by  reason  of  its  great 
port  it  has  become  a  city  of  more  than  five  millions.  When  a  city  becomes 
as  large  as  that,  it  needs  rapid  transit,  or  else  it  becomes  a  hide-bound 
city.  Its  people  must  live  far  enough  from  traffic  centers  to  avoid  con- 
gested conditions.  Rapid  transit  is  simply  that  sort  of  passenger  transit 
by  which  one  can  go  from  station  to  station,  whether  on  the  surface, 
above  ground  or  underground,  without  stopping  for  other  vehicles  or 
for  anything  else.  Rapid  transit  becomes  the  means  of  shooting  people 
quickly  from  traffic  centers,  which  should  be  multiplied  in  our  city  as  they 
are  in  London,  out  to  the  periphery  of  the  city.  To-day  it  is  not  the 
distance  from  the  center  of  the  city  or  from  your  destination  that 
matters;  it  is  the  time  that  it  takes  to  go.  You  can  measure  land 
values  and  to  a  large  extent  rent  by  the  time  it  takes  to  go  from 
any  locality  to  the  place  where  people  most  congregate  in  the  city.  Offi- 
cials of  the  city  should  lay  out  rapid  transit  lines,  therefore,  not  so  as 
to  increase  land  values  or  to  put  up  rent  or  to  duplicate  Harlem  condi- 
tions, although  higher  values  will  always  come  with  greater  conveniences, 
but  so  as  to  open  up  the  greatest  possible  part  of  that  area  which  is 
within  the  shortest  distance  of  the  center  of  the  city.  In  other  words, 
their  object  should  be  to  create  a  round  city  instead  of  a  long  city,  because 
a  round  city  has  the  greatest  area  with  the  shortest  distances  to  the 


PORT  AND   TERMINALS  255 

center,  whereas  the  long  city  has  the  smallest  area  with  the  longest 
distances  to  the  center.  A  round  city  is  an  economical  city.  London, 
Berlin  and  Paris  are  admirably  situated  to  become  round  cities  and  they 
have  grown  so  just  as  naturally  as  a  drop  of  water  assumes  a  spherical 
form  in  falling  to  the  earth.  New  York  city  in  the  past,  however, 
because  of  geographical  limitations,  and  to  some  extent  municipal 
limitations  also,  has  tended  to  become  a  congested  city,  growing  north 
and  still  farther  north,  until  more  recently  after  consolidation  and  by 
modern  electrical  transportation,  making  tunnels  as  useful  as  bridges, 
the  barriers  of  the  surrounding  rivers  have  been  broken  down,  and  now 
New  York  at  last  is  rapidly  becoming  a  round  city,  an  economical  city, 
a  city  that  is  not  going  to  duplicate  Harlem  conditions,  that  is  spread- 
ing out  land  values,  spreading  out  the  area  for  sunny  homes  within  a 
short  and  convenient  ride  to  the  traffic  centers  of  the  whole  city. 

What  I  am  pointing  out  is  the  economy  of  our  great  city,  because  it 
goes  with  the  advantages  of  our  great  port.  Our  great  city  cannot  com- 
pete, its  port  cannot  make  us  compete  in  some  ways  with  the  cities  of 
the  hinterland  that  are  smaller  and  so  can  house  their  workmen  in 
homes  within  a  short  distance  of  their  work,  unless  we  take  care  of  the 
welfare  of  families.  Cities  of  the  past,  such  as  the  great  manufactur- 
ing cities  of  England,  have  been  devourers  of  families  because  of  improper 
housing  conditions,  and  New  York  city  to  some  extent  has  been  the  same. 
The  cost  of  living  has  been  high  on  account  of  rents,  for  one  thing,  and 
of  food  also.  If  a  man  wanted  to  escape  to  the  outland  where  he  could 
bring  up  a  family  of  five  children  and  live  in  the  sun,  he  has  had  to  travel 
an  hour  out  and  an  hour  back,  sometimes  an  hour  and  a  half  out  and 
an  hour  and  a  half  back — too  much  to  take  out  of  a  working  man's 
time.  If  you  crowd  him  in  the  city,  he  cannot  bring  up  a  family;  thus 
the  city  becomes  a  devourer  of  families.  If  you  throw  him  on  the  out- 
side without  rapid  transit,  it  takes  more  of  his  time  to  go  and  come  to 
his  work  than  is  economical.  Hence  the  need  of  the  rapid  transit  system 
and  its  enlargement. 

I  shall  not  go  largely  into  the  various  phases  of  our  great  transportation 
system.  Until  the  subway  was  built  the  whole  system  was  privately 
owned,  and  went  only  to  the  most  congested  parts  of  the  city.  The  first 
rapid  transit  subway  that  was  built,  owned  by  the  city,  was  laid  out 
likewise  with  congestion  as  the  keynote  of  its  origin  and  construction. 
It  picked  out  the  most  congested  traffic,  the  greatest  number  of  short 
hauls,  going  over  to  Brooklyn  to  the  Long  Island  station,  taking  in  a 
little  piece  of  that  borough  where  the  greatest  number  of  fares  would 
be  obtained,  regardless  of  distributing  the  advantages  of  rapid  transit. 


256  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   ClTV 

The  authorities  of  the  city  came  to  the  conclusion,  however,  about  the 
time  that  Mr.  Hughes  was  governor  of  this  state,  that  the  city  might 
well  inaugurate  a  new  system  of  rapid  transit,  helping  to  make  the  city 
a  round  city,  not  following  the  real  estate  owners'  idea  of  congestion, 
but  going  out  in  all  directions  to  open  up  parts  of  the  city  not  otherwise 
approachable.  All  of  these  subway  lines  are  city  owned,  and  I  lay  it 
down  here  as  an  axiom  for  the  city  to  follow  that  the  underground  of 
our  streets  should  at  all  times  be  owned  by  the  city  and  kept  under  its 
control. 

Some  outlying  parts  of  the  subway  system  are  elevated  and  still  owned 
by  the  city,  but  concomitant  with  this  enlarged  rapid  transit  system 
going  into  Brooklyn,  The  Bronx,  and  Queens,  there  has  been  an  enlarge- 
ment also  of  the  privately  owned  rapid  transit  elevated  railroads.  A 
privilege  has  been  given  for  third  track  extension.  The  franchise  runs 
for  eighty-five  years. 

There  has  been  a  difference  of  opinion  between  groups  in  the  city  on 
the  proper  way  of  extending  the  rapid  transit  system.  Some,  with  whom 
I  have  sympathized,  have  favored  shorter  operating  agreements  than 
have  been  made  with  the  companies;  but  under  all  the  circumstances 
it  has  seemed  necessary  to  go  ahead  with  these  rather  long-term  oper- 
ating contracts.  The  city  retains  the  right,  however,  to  recapture  its 
own  subways  at  any  time  after  ten  years. 

The  five-cent  fare  is  to  be  the  fare  throughout  the  whole  city.  Harlem 
and  The  Bronx  have  had  a  great  advantage,  because  they  could  dis- 
tribute their  families  through  every  business  zone  of  Manhattan  at  a 
five-cent  fare.  Brooklyn  and  Queens  were  in  a  ten-  and  fifteen-cent 
relation  to  the  parts  of  the  city  where  people  were  most  employed.  Under 
the  new  rapid  transit  system,  however,  there  is  to  be  a  five-cent  fare 
from  all  the  boroughs  excepting  Richmond,  not  only  to  Manhattan 
but  through  Manhattan,  so  that  there  is  a  new  possibility  of  housing 
our  people  in  sunny  homes  with  a  quick  and  convenient  ride  to  their 
work.  Along  with  the  port  facilities  that  are  increasing  there  is  growing 
up  also  this  great  rapid  transit  system  that  is  making  our  great  city  a 
habitable  place  for  twenty  or  thirty  millions  of  people,  so  that  it  will 
not  devour  families  but  will  allow  them  to  increase. 


REPORT  OF  CONFERENCES  ON  THE  GOVERNMENT 
OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 

The  addresses  contained  in  this  volume  were  delivered  at  a  series  of 
lecture-conferences  held  at  Columbia  University  during  the  month 
of  April  1915,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Academy  of  Political  Science, 
the  New  York  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research,  the  Institute  of  Arts  and 
Sciences  of  Columbia  University,  and  a  citizens'  committee. 


Allison  L.  Adams 

Edward  D.  Adams 

Robert  Adamson 

Felix  Adler 

John  G.  Agar 

Mrs.  Addison  Allen 

Frederick  H.  Allen 

Miss  Sadie  American 

A.  A.  Anderson 

Mrs.  A.  A.  Anderson 

John  B.  Andrews 

David  W.  Armstrong,  jr. 

Leo  Arnstein 

Robert  Low  Bacon 

Dr.  Addison  W.  Baird 

Henry  deForest  Baldwin 

Charles  D.  Barry 

Edward  M.  Bassett 

Mrs.  Lindon  W.  Bates 

George  Gordon  Battle 

Miss  Beatrice  Bend 

Charles  L.  Bernheimer 

Dr.  Hermann  M.  Biggs 

H.  S.  Braucher 

William  C.  Breed 

Elmer  E.  Brown 

Walston  H.  Brown 

Francis  M.  Burdick 

Irving  T.  Bush 

George  F.  Canfield 

James  G.  Cannon 

Andrew  Carnegie 

William  M.  Chadbourne 

Frank  R.  Chambers 

W.  H.  Chesebrough 

Edwards  H.  Childs 

Richard  S.  Childs 

William  H.  Childs 

Joseph  H.  Choate 

Thomas  W.  Churchill 

Miss  Kate  Holladay  Claghorn 


CITIZENS7    COMMITTEE 

John  Bates  Clark 
Stephen  C.  Clark 
William  A.  Clark 
Julius  Henry  Cohen 
Charles  A.  Conant 
H.  M.  Conkey 
Maurice  E.  Connolly 
Robert  C.  Cornell 
Frederic  R.  Coudert 
J.  Howard  Cowperthwait 
Paul  D.  Cravath 
Herbert  Croly 
Bertram  de  N.  Cruger 
R.  Fulton  Cutting 
Katharine  Davis 
Henry  P.  Davison 
Mrs.  Henry  P.  Davison 
Henry  W.  de  Forest 
Robert  W.  de  Forest 
Horace  E.  Deming 
Cleveland  H.  Dodge 
Victor  J.  Dowling 
Miss  Mary  Dreier 
Clement  J.  Driscoll 
Edward  K.  Dunham 
William  A.  Dunning 
Knowlton  Durham 
Max  Eastman 
Aaron  H.  Eastmond 
Otto  M.  Eidlitz 
Abram  I.  Elkus 
John  T.  Fetherston 
John  H.  Finley 
Mrs.  J.  H.  Flagler 
Homer  Folks 
Raymond  B.  Fosdick 
John  C.  Fowler 
Walter  E.  Frew 
George  Friedlander 
A.  S.  Frissell 
Paul  Fuller 

(257) 


Howard  S.  Gans 
Fanklin  H.  Giddings 
John  M.  Glenn 
Frederick  A.  Goetze 
Rev.  C.  L.  Goodell 
Frank  J.  Goodnow 
E.  R.  L.  Gould 
Mrs.  Helen  F.  Grab 
Rev.  Percy  S.  Grant 
Rt.  Rev.  David  H.  Greer 
Henry  E.  Gregory 
William  R.  Griffiths 
Edward  Howard  Griggs 
E.  Morgan  Grinnell 
Mrs.  Isaac  Monroe  Gross 
William  D.  Guthrie 
Fred.  J.  Hall 
Thomas  C.  Hall 
Arthur  H.  Ham 
Henry  B.  Hammond 
John  Hays  Hammond 
John  Henry  Hammond 
Charles  E.  Hanaman 
Norman  Hapgood 
Hastings  H.  Hart 
Mrs.  Joshua  A.  Hatfield 
Timothy  Healy 
James  P.  Heaton 
Job  E.  Hedges 
Daniel  V.  B.  Hegeman 
Robert  W.  Higbie 
Charles  D.  Hllles 
Hector  M.  Hitchings 
Hamilton  Holt 
George  B.  Hopkins 
Franklin  C.  Hoyt 
Alexander  C.  Humphreys 
Mrs.  Helen  Hartley  Jenkins 
Jeremiah  W.  Jenks 
Frederic  B.  Jennings 
Henry  W.  Jessup 


258 


THE   GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW    YORK   CITY 


Joseph  French  Johnson 

Mrs.  Florence  Kelley 

David  Bennett  King 

Willard  V.  King 

Arthur  K.  Kuhn 

Percival  Kuhne 

Samson  Lachman 

Charles  R.  Lamb 

Thomas  W.  Lament 

Francis  G.  Landon 

Winthrop  D.  Lane 

Richard  W.  Lawrence 

David  Layton 

Ernst  J.  Lederle 

Lewis  Cass  Ledyard 

Porter  R.  Lee 

Joseph  M.  Levine 

Adolph  Lewisohn 

Sam  A.  Lewisohn 

Samuel  McCune  Lindsay 

Walter  Lippmann 

Martin  W.  Littleton 

Seth  Low 

Rev.  M.  J.  MacLeod 

V.  Everit  Macy 

Milo  R.  Maltbie 

Rev.  William  T.  Manning 

William  A.  Marble 

Marcus  M.  Marks 

Bradley  Martin 

William  H.  Matthews 

William  H.  Maxwell 

Edwin  G.  Merrill 

Rev.  William  Pierson  Merrill 

John  G.  Milburn 

James  Alex.  Miller 

Ogden  L.  Mills 

Mrs.  John  Purroy  Mitchel 

Wesley  C.  Mitchell 

Victor  Morawetz 

Miss  Anne  Morgan 

William  Fellowes  Morgan 

Mrs.  Harrison  S.  Morris 

Henry  Moskowitz 

Frank  Moss 

John  J.  Murphy 

Henry  Raymond  Mussey 

Howard  Lee  McBain 


Mrs.  Frederick  Nathan 
Charles  D.  Norton 
Morgan  J.  O'Brien 
Adolph  S.  Ochs 
Dr.  Henry  S.  Oppenheimer 
Henry  Fairfield  Osborn 
William  Church  Osborn 
E.  H.  Outerbridge 
Edward  Page 

Rev.  Charles  H.  Parkhurst 
Herbert  Parsons 
Mrs.  Stephen  Pell  ' 
Amos  R.  E.  Pinchot 
Albert  Plaut 
George  A.  Plimpton 
William  M.  Polk 
Thomas  Reed  Powell 
Ezra  P.  Prentice 
Amos  L.  Prescott 
Joseph  M.  Price 
Joseph  M.  Proskauer 
Ralph  Pulitzer 
Lawson  Purdy 
George  Haven  Putnam 
William  L.  Ransom 
William  A.  Read 
Ogden  Mills  Reid 
George  L.  Rives 
Elihu  Root 
Elihu  Root,  jr. 
Dr.  Bernard  Sachs 
William  Jay  Schieffelin 
Jacob  H.  Schiff 
Mortimer  L.  Schiff 
Miss  Louisa  Lee  Schuyler 
Henry  R.  Seager 
Edwin  R.  A.  Seligman 
Isaac  N.  Seligman 
Albert  Shaw 
William  R.  Shepherd 
Mrs.  V.  G.  Simkhovitch 
William  M.  Sloane 
Howard  C.  Smith 
Munroe  Smith 
Nelson  S.  Spencer 
James  Speyer 
Mrs.  Charles  B.  Squier 
Edward  O.  Stanley 


Charles  Steele 
J.  E.  Sterrett 
Francis  Lynde  Stetson 
Henry  L.  Stimson 
Harlan  F.  Stone 
Mrs.  Willard  Straight 
Percy  S.  Straus 
Benjamin  Strong,  jr. 
Frank  K.  Sturgis 
Cyrus  L.  Sulzberger 
Lionel  Sutro 
Henry  Suzzallo 
Mrs.  Joseph  R.  Swan 
Francis  J.  Swayze 
Graham  Romeyn  Taylor 
Charles  Thaddeus  Terry 
Henry  W.  Thurston 
Franklin  S.  Tomlin 
Henry  R.  Towne 
Frank  Tucker 
Frank  P.  Tuttle 
Howard  B.  Vannote 
Mrs.  Henry  Villard 
Oswald  Garrison  Villard 
Miss  Lillian  D.  Wald 
Morris  D.  Waldman 
Roberts  Walker 
Felix  M.  Warburg 
Cabot  Ward 
John  I.  Waterbury 
Maurice  Wertheim 
Mrs.  Nelson  P.  Wheeler 
Alfred  T.  White 
Gaylord  S.  White 
E.  Stagg  Whitin 
Rev.  James  Morris  Whiton 
George  W.  Wickersham 
Delos  F.  Wilcox 
W.  G.  Willcox 
Clark  Williams 
Mornay  Williams 
Joseph  H.  Wise 
Rabbi  Stephen  S.  Wise 
Henry  F.  Wolff 
Howard  B.  Woolston 
Owen  D.  Young 


The  program  was  as  follows: 

April  7.     R.  Fulton  Cutting,  Presiding 
The  Office  of  Mayor 

Hon.  John  Purroy  Mitchel,  Mayor  of  New  York 

Dr.  F.  A.  Cleveland,  Director,  Bureau  of  Municipal  Re- 
search 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  CONFERENCES  259 

April  9.     Albert  Shaw,  Vice-President,  Academy   of   Political   Science, 

Presiding 
Public  Health  and  Sanitation 

Dr.   S.   S.   Goldwater,   Commissioner,   Department    of   Health 
John  J.  Murphy,  Commissioner,  Tenement  House  Depart- 
ment 
Dr.   George   O'Hanlon,   General   Medical   Superintendent, 

Bellevue  and  Allied  Hospitals 

Homer  Folks,  Secretary,  State  Charities  Aid  Association 
April  12.     Norman  Hapgood,  Editor  Harper's  Weekly,  Presiding 
Police  and  Fire 

Hon.  Arthur  Woods,  Commissioner,   Department  of  Police 
Hon.  Robert  Adamson,  Commissioner,  Department  of  Fire 
Clement  J.  Driscoll,  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research,  and 

former  Deputy  Commissioner  of  Police 
April   14.      William  A.   Marble,   President,   Merchants'  Association  of 

New  York,  Presiding 
Charities  and  Correction 

Dr.  Katharine  B.  Davis,  Commissioner  of  Correction 
Hon.  John  A.  Kingsbury,  Commissioner  of  Charities 

Prof.  Edward  T.  Devine,  Director,  New  York  School  of 

Philanthropy 
April  16.      Dr.  Samuel  McCune  Lindsay,  President,  The  Academy  of 

Political  Science,  Presiding 
Parks  and  Recreation 

Hon.  Cabot  Ward,  President,  Park  Board 

Dr.  C.  Ward  Crampton,  Director  of  Physical  Education,   De- 
partment of  Education 
Mr.  Howard  Bradstreet,  Madison  House 
Mr.  W.  B.  Van  Ingen 

April  19.      Frank  A.  Vanderlip,  President,  National  City  Bank,   Pre- 
siding 

Financial  Administration,  Budget  and  Tax  Rate 
Hon.  William  A.  Prendergast,  Comptroller 

Thomas  W.  Lament,  of  J.  P.  Morgan  &  Co. 
Prof.  E.  R.  A.  Seligman,  Columbia  University 
April  21.     Thomas  W.  Lament,  Vice  President,  Academy  of  Political 

Science,  Presiding 
Highways,  Street  Cleaning  and  Public  Works 

Hon.  Douglas  Mathewson,  President,  Borough  of  The  Bronx 
Hon.  John  T.  Fetherston,  Commissioner  of  Street  Cleaning 


260  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  NEW   YORK   CITY 

Hon.  Lewis  H.  Pounds,  President,  Borough  of  Brooklyn 
Hon.   Marcus   M.   Marks,   President,   Borough   of   Man- 
hattan 
April  23.     Adolph  Lewisohn,  Chairman,  National  Committee  on  Prison 

Labor,  Presiding 

The  Administrative  Organization  of  the  Courts 
Judge  William  McAdoo,  Chief  Magistrate 
Judge  William  L.  Ransom',  City  Court 
George  W.  Alger,  Esq. 
April  26.     Nicholas   Murray   Butler,   President,    Columbia   University, 

Presiding 
The  City  Charter 

Hon.  George  McAneny,  President,  Board  of  Aldermen         .   • 
Thomas  I.  Parkinson,  Esq.,  Legislative  Drafting  Bureau, 

Columbia  University 

Richard  S.  Childs,  Secretary,  Short  Ballot  Organization 
April  28.     Edwin  R.  A.  Seligman,  McVickar  Professor  of  Political  Econ- 
omy, Columbia  University,  Presiding 
Transportation,  Port  and  Terminal  Facilities 

Hon.  John  Purroy  Mitchel,  Mayor  of  New  York 

Richard  C.  Harrison,  First  Deputy  Commissioner  of  Docks 

and  Ferries 
Hon.  Edward  M.  Bassett,  Former  Member  of  the  Public 

Service  Commission 
April  30.     Sidney  Edward  Mezes,  President  of  The  College  of  the  City 

of  New  York,  Presiding 
Education 

Thomas  W.  Churchill,  President  Board  of  Education 

Clarence  E.  Meleney,  Associate  Superintendent  of  Schools 
The  address  of  Dr.  Cleveland,  which  is  necessarily  omitted  from  this 
volume,  will  be  published  in  full  by  the  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research. 


36268 


I 


